Naruto: Paths Cross
by CrossyCross
Summary: A chance meeting with a group of heroes changes the world of Naruto. Watch as destinies unfold and lives are changed forever as the paths of worlds cross together. Pairing/s still pending, but DEFINITELY Naruto/Hinata/others.
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A small blonde child with whisker marks on his cheeks ran away from a crowd of villagers, his eyes desperately searching for a way out.

He ran into an alley, and in his haste, didn't notice it was a dead end.

Despair clinging to his heart, he turned around just in time to see the villagers surround him, promises of pain and harm in their eyes.

"You were hard to catch demon. Just like all foxes. But we've got you now!"

"Yeah! It's time to avenge the Hokage and our people!"

"Kill the demon!"

"Please! No! I didn't do anything! Why are you doing this to me?!" He screamed as he covered his head with his arms, but even this was to no avail as the villagers stomped, kicked, punched and stabbed the innocent child.

It continued for several hours, with the boy loosing consciousness after twenty minutes.

He would have died, if it wasn't for his tenant, until finally, the villagers left him alone, tired of beating the poor child.

They left him, all alone in a grimy alley, bloodied and beaten, barely alive and his clothes ripped nearly to shreds.

The sky started to rain, almost as if it was crying for him.

And through this all, a figure in white watched him from the roof, his fingers clenching around a sheathed sword in frustration, in his inability to protect and intervene.

His black hair plastered to his face due to the rain, he noiselessly hopped down to the ground, silent tears streaming down his face in his helplessness, indistinguishable with the rain.

"You poor child." He started.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Why did this always happen? Why?

He didn't do anything this time. Not even a prank. And yet, they chased him down for no reason. Calling him 'demon' or 'monster' and other names.

What did he do to deserve this? Was he really a demon? If so, then why was he even born here in the first place? Why wasn't he in hell?

"You poor child." A soothing voice, rich and deep but definitely male called out to him. He flinched, was this a trick? To give him hope only to crush it underfoot? It had happened before.

"So young, yet so noble, forced to shoulder a burden heavy even for heroes and scorned for something that is not your fault." It continued, and he felt gentle arms lift his weight and carry him.

He felt strangely at peace, as if he was safe from any harm when in this man's presence. Slowly but surely, Naruto Uzumaki, for the first time in his short life, slept peacefully.

Cross Azala Erazur smiled at the figure in his arms, his image fading into nothingness as he cast a cloaking spell and stepping into a portal, the house of the boy on the other side. The smile fell however, when he saw the state of the dwelling.

Once again, he felt the urge to unleash his wrath upon the villagers, bringing down justice upon their heads. But he forced it down. He was better than that, he was not someone who killed in cold blood. They would get their justice when their time comes.

"S-Sir?" A weak voice caught his attention as he glanced down at the pale malnourished form in his hands. He grimaced, but turned it into a smile for the child. "Yes little one?" He asked in the kindest voice he could muster.

"You're not going to hurt me are you?" The child questioned desperately, almost as if that was that was the norm of what people normally did to him.

"Of course not. My name's Cross kid, and I'm not like the others. Now sleep child. I'll protect you." He assured him, placing child gently on the small futon and tucking him in. Pretty soon, he was asleep.

The grimace returned, and he looked at the window. "Humans and their fear of what is different." His fists clenched tightly, the material covering them straining. "To hurt a CHILD and see a demon...such atrocities." He tilted his vision to the boy. "When this day is over, you will never meet me again for a long time. But..." He knelt down and placed his hand on his head. "I'll be DAMNED if I leave you unprotected." With ease, he entered the boy's mind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

***drip drip drip***

The constant sound of dripping water reverberated throughout the sewers that were Naruto's mindscape. The tunnel was grimy, black with splotches of filthy green while sewer water ran freely on the ground. To have a mindscape as foreboding as this, required multiple traumatic experiences. Once again, Cross cursed the restrictions that had been brought upon him upon entering this world.

Compared to his friends' his freedom upon this world was like that of a chained dog's. He could only fully interact with his friends and he had to hide from nearly all sentient beings from this world.

Sometimes, being the Hybrid King and an enigma was more trouble than it was worth. And until his existence has fully adapted to this world, it would stay that way. But that would take years. And he did not have the luxury of that kind of time if he wished for this child to be an apprentice.

Carefully, he navigated through the sewers, knowing full well the dangers of being in someone else's mind. Even the greatest psychic master could fall under an unexpected surprise.

Finally, he sensed _**it.**_ The source of all of the child's problems. It was faint, but then again, the seals on the child's stomach gave him reason to hypothesize that the demon would be kept near the center of his mind. Having started on the very edge of his mind, he had a lot of ground to cover.

Cross increased his speed, speeding through what would be several miles before reaching the room where the cage was kept. The aura was so powerful it was almost an actual weight in the air, and the killing intent of the vile chakra would have killed a lesser man. But Cross was NOT a lesser man. He had faced worse throughout his life.

He stepped into the room and right in front of the cage that had a bettered paper with the kanji for 'seal' on it. He could see inside it, see the large red fox that had ravaged the village of Konoha five years prior. He narrowed his eyes, an astounding mixture of blue and green glowing faintly as his own aura slowly rose in power, rousing the fox from its slumber. Slowly, but surely, the eye of the fox opened, and his own eyes flared, as if in challenge.

The fox breathed deeply, the gust of wind making his trenchcoat and hair flap wildly in the breeze. **"Who dares interrupt my sleep. The Great Kyuubi no Kitsune?" **The deep booming voice of the fox questioned him with a roar at the end, before narrowing its sights on him.

Cross didn't even flinch through it all. "Cross Azala Erazur. The Hybrid King." He answered, not the tiniest bit intimidated by the monster in front of him.

If a giant fox could show curiosity, this one did. It opened its mouth to speak, when a voice cut through the air.

"C-cross?" Naruto's voice interrupted them. Cross frowned when he saw Naruto take small, frightened steps toward him, before running full swing and latching onto his leg as if it was a lifeline. "Naruto" He breathed, placing a hand on his head.

"Cross-oniisan, what is that thing?" He asked, frightened by the gigantic fox who had bared its teeth in a sort of interested/menacing fashion.

"That...is the reason why everyone hurts you Naruto. You are not a demon. But you are the jailor of one. This is the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Cross explained. Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief, and his grip on Cross's pants tightened.

Kyuubi grinned in a nightmarish passion expecting an angry outburst, a tirade of profanities against itself, or fear. But it certainly did not expect Naruto to laugh, tears steaming down his face.

The surprise was evident on both Cross and Kyuubi as Naruto's laughs lowered into short hiccups before going silent. "Naruto? Are you alright?" Cross asked, worried for the boy's safety.

Naruto wiped the remains of the tears from his face and smiled at Cross. "It's okay Oniisan. I'm just happy to know the truth, and to know that all this time, I wasn't a demon like I'd thought I was." He explained.

'_He has suffered so much, and yet, he still manages to find happiness in the direst news. I chose a fine successor.'_ Cross thought, also noting the fact that Naruto had called him 'Oniisan' which he knew meant 'brother'.

"**As much as I like this touching scene, I hope none of you are forgetting I am right here."** Kyuubi interrupted the two of them.

"I haven't. And since you probably already know who Naruto is and I've already introduced you to Naruto, I'll get to the point; I want you to help train Naruto." Cross dropped the bomb.

"WHAT?!" Naruto screamed, obviously wondering if his new friend was insane, asking THE Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful Bijuu and the one cause of his problems to TRAIN HIM of all things.

Kyuubi's surprise was short-lived, laughing loudly when what he said sunk in. **"And what makes you think I'd train the child who holds me imprisoned? You have a few screws loose Cross. If that's all you wanted to say, I'm leaving." **Kyuubi disagreed, turning around.

"Is that so? I know your kind Kyuubi. You're a prideful creature. Even imprisoned in a jinchuuriki, you want your reputation to be grand. What would the others say when they hear the container of the Kyuubi is a weakling?" Cross pointed out, and Kyuubi stopped in its tracks. **"I'm listening."**

"Good. Because all that I want is for Naruto to have a chance at life. And it won't be possible if he can't protect himself from all the beatings he receives. Isn't that right Naruto?" Cross gestured to him.

"H-Hai" He responded.

Kyuubi growled. **"Very well. But you should know that the only things I can do for him is to teach him chakra control and give him some of the knowledge I have gathered over the years. After all, you can't expect me to know ninjutsus and whatnot when all I had to do to fight is to breathe fire or bite and slash." **

"Acceptable. But I think you're forgetting the skills that you could teach him if he were to turn into a Hanyou." Cross added.

"**IF he turns into a Hanyou."**

"Hmm...then until that time comes, I'll have to be the one to teach him." Cross muttered, a plan on how to bypass his restrictions already in mind.

"Really?! You're going to teach me Cross-oniisan?!" Naruto shouted in excitement.

"Well, it's hard to explain Naruto." He sighed heavily. "I currently have a LOT of heavy restrictions, ones that will take years before disappearing. The fact that I'm talking to you two right now is already stretching it thin. But I think I know a way on how to get by them." He turned to the fox. "Well Kyuubi, do we have a deal?" He held out his hand.

Kyuubi growled once more, before holding out a clawed paw and letting Cross shake the tip of it through the cage. **"Yes"** It accepted.

Cross grinned. "Good. Now I hope you two won't mind a few more 'tenants' so to speak." He added.

"**Wait, what?/**Nani?" But Kyuubi and Naruto's question wouldn't be answered as a bright flash filled the mindscape, and they knew no more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cross sighed in relief as he removed his palm from Naruto's forehead. It had been a success. Hopefully, by the end of this day, Naruto would have ample protection and a reasonable chance for a bright future. All that depended on what he was about to do now.

Now, there was a reason for the title 'Hybrid King' that he carried. The story on how it happened was irrelevant but what it meant was important.

He was originally a Lacroan, an INCREDIBLY altruistic race, though by no means a stranger to fighting to the death. A fiasco concerning a certain Vampire Queen had resulted in him turning into a half-breed instead of a full vampire and the resulting transformation forced him to feed or die.

Having an incredibly high level of control despite being a 'newborn', he could feed without fear of killing the donors, most of which were done with their consent. Who ever said a vampire couldn't just ask if he could suck your blood? Anyway, long story short, it turned out that he absorbed the species' strengths and very rarely, their weaknesses, and having never deserted his race, he obtained blood/essence (this was due to him taking the blood of an Essence Absorber, enabling him to take the powers of those that had no blood to speak of) from so many different races and used it for his Kingdom's benefit.

There were a few side effects of this though. One of which was for him to develop personas from each new species he obtained. The result? He had a few thousand other personas in running around in HIS mindscape. Hopefully, this would soon turn into a blessing.

What he planned to do was to infuse Naruto with the essence and mind of a choice three races, each one of them containing the experience and skills needed by Naruto until he could train him himself when his restrictions are lifted. The problem was: who to choose? Thankfully, he had already made up his mind, and with luck, Naruto would thrive with his gifts.

He focused on the three races he had chosen, channeling their energies and plucking them from his mindscape and containing them in the sphere that had formed in his hand. "Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, I choose you as my successor, and so, I bless you with these gifts, and may you use them wisely, and grow into a worthy heir of my power." He proclaimed, and the thrust the ball into the boy's heart, a flash of light filling the small room, dimming after a few minutes.

By the time the light had fully disappeared, in his place, was a small gray rectangular box, barely the size of a man's fist. Intricate patterns carved into the stone weaved through the item, most prominent around a silver glowing stone the size of a child's thumb inlaid into the box...

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Well FINALLY I finished that. Hopefully it'll rock when we get to the action. Please review people! I wanna know what you think. Does it rock or does it suck?**

**I like criticism better than no reviews!**

**On a side note, when I get to Hinata, you will NEVER look at her the same ever again... 'evil laugh'**


	2. Chapter 2

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Three figures trudged across the sand, two had their bodies covered completely by the brown cloaks they wore and another one was; strangely enough, in a simple brown and green sunshine dress that reached to her knees.

One of the first two as obviously a female, five feet eight inches in height with a voluptuous build. Her long dark-red hair flapped wildly in the breeze and her deep onyx eyes looked on forward with a slight smile on her lips.

The other was a male. Five feet and nine inches tall, and piercing red eyes were all that were visible on him, as his cloak covered his entire body and he had his hood on.

The female in the dress was five feet four inches high, light brown hair that reached to her chin with a simple green hairband cute brown doe eyes. She was smiling happily, moving barefoot along the sand with a strange animalistic grace unbefitting of her visage. Then again, she WAS out of place on the blistering sand.

They continued moving, until they reached the peak of a large mound of sand, giving them the elevation to see a large coliseum-like structure made completely out of sand.

"Ah, the hidden village of Sand... doesn't look like much." The male commented in the light cheery voice of someone barely out of his teens.

"What did you expect? They're ORDINARY _humans_ after all, and not Avedons." The cloaked girl's sultry voice interjected.

The male shrugged his shoulders and made cutting motions in the air. "Yeah yeah. Now how about you go and check out a good place for us to appear?" He suggested, and the girl rolled her eyes at him.

Then, the girl disappeared. No puff of smoke, no shadows taking her in, no fading. Just plain disappeared.

The male shrugged once again and started whistling while the female in a dress knelt down and started inspecting the area around them and doing strange stuff with the animals. This continued for a few minutes before the girl reappeared, her form just being there once again. She was privy to the scene of the male looking strangely at the female who was surrounded by numerous scorpions of different sizes. If they didn't know better, they'd think she was talking to them by how she tended to giggle or laugh in tandem with scorpions twittering whenever a certain yellow scorpion clicked its mandibles together as if talking.

"Took you long enough love." The male muttered.

"Oh, put a sock in it. You don't know how hard it is to teleport so fast that no one will notice you and yet see your surroundings" she shot back "anyway, I found an empty street. Now quick, grab Ciel. As fun as it probably is to be sharing jokes with scorpions, we don't have much time" She ordered.

Grumbling, he shouted to Ciel "Hey Ciel! We gotta go! You can talk to your scorpion friends AFTER we've settled down here!"

The girl nodded, before clicking her teeth in a pattern and the scorpions dispersed. She pranced to them and the cloaked girl grabbed each of their hands. The moment her skin touched theirs, they were suddenly in the aforementioned location; a random street in the village.

The street was sand, as was all of the village, and most of the houses' outside were sand, heck, he wouldn't be surprised if the insides were sand too. "...a single word describes this entire place...sandy." The male said.

"That all you can think?! BORING!" The girl yelled at him.

"Well, can you think of something better?"

"..."

"No? Well, told ya so. Now where's that little munchkin who's gonna be my apprentice?" The male wondered, rubbing his pale hands together.

The female groaned. "Geez, I don't understand how you managed to convince me to go with you on this wild goose chase all over a feeling that there's someone here who seems to be like you!" she shouted.

The male gave her a cheesy grin. "Well, I guess it's thanks to my otherworldly charms." He said to her.

The girl grinned at him. "Yeah right. But can't argue with the 'charms' fact handsome." She uttered as she drew him closer and kissed him.

"HEY YOU TWO! SHADDAP! IT'S TOO EARLY FOR THIS KIND OF SHIT HERE!" An old man screamed at them from a window, ruining the scene.

The male growled, literally. He shoved back his hood, his wild black hair revealed and his teeth bared, two fang-like incisors showing. "You shut up old man!" he yelled back, pulling out a gun from nowhere and shooting the old geezer.

**BANG!**

The old man went down in an instant, his blood flowing freely from the hole in his head.

...

... At this, Ciel slowly tip-toed away from them, feeling the stirrings of trouble coming up.

...

"Umm...oops?"

"OOPS?! Is that all you have to say you idiot?! OOPS?! You just killed a fuckin person not even a single minute into a city!" The girl shouted at his ear.

"Hey! I can't help it! I was caught by surprise. I didn't notice he was a human!" He countered stupidly.

"DIDN'T NOTICE HE WAS A HUMAN?! You IDIOT! We're not in Zelathia! Cross Avedon, we're around HUMANS, not Hybrid Kings, Bloodborn Devils or Deathless!"

Suddenly, the sound of feet stepping on sand was heard by their ears, sure signs of other people nearing them. "Oh shit! Get us somewhere FAST Zakara!" Cross Avedon pleaded.

Zakara rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm, teleporting them into a playground. "Phew, that was close." Cross breathed, right before Zakara's fist found itself buried deep in his stomach.

As Cross was rolling in agony on the ground, Zakara rolled her eyes, having seen him not even flinch from a sword buried hilt-deep into his stomach when serious. Suddenly they heard the pitter-patter of feet running on ground, and small yelps of children. They turned their heads to survey the scene of several kids running away from a red-headed child, a forlorn look on his face.

Cross narrowed his eyes as he gazed on the child, finding that the aura he had sensed was radiating from the boy. Strangely enough, now that he was close enough to truly inspect it, the aura he had felt was actually a mix of two. _'Of course. A mixture of a certain extra-bloodthirsty bijuu and the aura of a child led me to believe there was someone like me in here'_ he chuckled _'Well, no matter. It's actually a perfect combination. He'll make a fine successor.'_

Zakara noticed the look he was giving the kid. "That's him?" Her only response was a nod, before he started walking towards the boy who had dropped the ball, despair already clinging to his features at the other kids' treatment of him.

The ball continued rolling, bumping onto the toe of Cross's boot. Gently, he picked it up and... threw it as hard as he could at the boy. In response, the sand shot into the air, grabbing the ball with a sound resembling a mini-thunderclap. The boy's head snapped upwards, seeing the ball floating in the air due to the sand and Cross's comically shocked face that continued to blink as if questioning if what he saw was true.

Cross straightened as he watched the sand hover silently in the air, before slowly falling back to the ground, the ball making a slight gouge in the soft sand.

...

...

"COOL!" He shouted like a kid, making Zakara groan from her spot and the boy to stare in shock at the uncharacteristic response to the usual screaming and fear.

Cross grinned as he picked up a ball. "Cool power. So you can control sand?" He asked as he repeatedly bopped it into the air with one hand. Gulping, the boy nodded, making Cross frown at him.

"Dude, TALK, don't just stand there like a retard." He ordered.

"Y-yes..." He said timidly, and a tick mark appeared on Cross's head.

"DID I SAY WHISPER?!" He shouted at the child and it responded by saying "YES!"

A smile formed on his face. "Good" he tucked the ball under his arm and held out a hand "Name's Cross Avedon kid. What's yours?" He asked jovially.

"Sabaku no Gaara, Cross-san." Gaara responded, louder than usual incase Cross got angry again for not being loud enough. Cross chuckled at him "cut the 'san' part out please. It makes me feel old, and I'm barely out of my teens dude. So Gaara, wanna play volleyball?" he asked him, handing Gaara the ball. The kid gave him a confused look and he face-faulted.

"Kid, you don't know what Volleyball is?" He questioned and slapped his face for his stupidity when the boy said 'No', remembering the fact that they were in another world. "Dammit kid, we're in a country full of sand that pretty much looks like a mega beach (without the water) and you don't know VOLLEYBALL of all things? The sport which people just ADORE around sand?!" He screamed.

"...No" Gaara reiterated and Cross yowled in frustration, making Zakara giggle at them. Gaara blinked at the sound and turned his sights on her. She waved him off with a dainty hand. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just having fun seeing Cross frustrated." She told him, making Cross cross his arms and "hmph" at her.

Strangely enough, Gaara found he liked this situation a LOT better than the ones he usually had.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After a basic explanation of how volleyball works, Cross had asked Gaara to make a solid net for them. Unfortunately, Gaara never actually trained his skills in sand manipulation; finding it to be more of a bane than a boon with all the negative effects it had on people around it, and so, Cross almost had to result to asking a seamstress to make one, which would undoubtedly take a long time. Thankfully, Zakara reminded him of a fact he had forgotten.

"Cross, you can make solid objects from shadow remember?" She reminded him.

"...oh...right...I knew that." He answered lamely, making Gaara laugh at him, before stopping abruptly, thinking it inappropriate for the situation. Cross noticed this and rolled his eyes, making a 'tsk' sound. "Dude, you shouldn't mind laughing at someone. Heck, I do it all the time. If the guy gets angry at you for it, then he should laugh at you when the situation calls for it. That's how me and my friends go." He taught the socially challenged child.

Zakara bonked his head. "Yeah right. I guess you forgot to mention the part where you guys shoot each other." She jogged his memory, making him drool at the times it got REALLY bloody. "UGH! He's daydreaming again!" she groaned.

"Daydreaming about what?" Gaara asked her timidly.

She shook her head good-naturedly. "You don't wanna know kid. You don't wanna know." Seeing how mature she seemed compared to the child-like Cross, Gaara trusted her.

Finally, after a few minutes and crowbar becoming bent under the force used to hit his head, Cross had finally remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Rubbing his hands together in glee, he raised his arms and proclaimed; "Prepare to be amazed kid!" he slammed his palms down on the ground, and a full sized Olympic net appeared, together with lines on the ground to encompass the field.

"Alright kid, let's play. Your sand versus my awesomeness. Let's GO!" He threw the ball into the air and hit it hard, the ball careening towards Gaara at speeds excess 60 kph. Thankfully, his sand saved him from a painful concussion, and also sending the ball back at a surprised Cross, giving him a nasty bruise when it impacted with his face.

Zakara fell down to the ground, clutching her stomach as she guffawed at the sight. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh god Cross! You got OWNED by a KID!" She laughed. Painfully, Cross stood up, removing the ball from his face and snapping his neck to the left in a deadly angle, making Gaara wince as he snapped it to the right and then back to normal. He grinned. "Nice, Shukaku." He commended.

Gaara fell down from shock at what he said, his eyes wide in surprise. They knew about Shukaku?

Cross chuckled at him, and Zakara appeared beside him, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Don't be so surprised kid. We'd be idiots not to notice how everyone acts around you, but then again..." she shifted her gaze on Cross.

"HEY! I'm not THAT stupid!" He yelled.

Once again she rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. Are we talking about the same person who thought that the wasp that stung him was an alien bent on mass destruction and called the ENTIRE force of Guardians and Protectors to exterminate a single insect?" She objected, making chuckle nervously.

"Ehehehe...I thought the sudden bloating on my hand was an alien venom." He explicated, but he was already ignored the other two.

Zakara patted his head tenderly. "We know the difference between the demon itself and the jailor Gaara, that and the fact that we have seen WORSE than what Shukaku could have ever accomplished. So don't expect us to go and leave you just because of that."

"Yeah, and if you knew what we are, YOU might be the one screaming 'demon'" Cross added, in which Zakara teleported behind him and raised her foot ABOVE her head before bringing it down with destructive force on the young man.

"*sigh*I don't know why I love this idiot." She muttered, as Cross rose up from the ground, clutching his head.

"Oww, that hurt most than usual." He complained.

"Aw, stuff it. It's not as if you actually get hurt from it."

"I feel so loved." He said sarcastically before turning back to Gaara. "Well kid, back to business. Looks like Shukaku wants to play ball...HARD." He added at the end. "So could it be possible to allow him to control the body for a while? I promise to keep everything safe and under wraps." He pleaded, his palms together in a placating gesture.

Gaara weighted the pros and cons. Letting Shukaku take control could result in disastrous consequences, and yet, he didn't want to disappoint them. That and the fact that there was _something_ about the two of them that made him feel as if they could take on Shukaku no questions asked. Sighing deeply, he nodded, and let the raccoon dog bijuu take control. Suddenly, his eyes changed, turning into a golden four-pointed shuriken-like one. A sadistic smile formed on his face and he started laughing wildly. That is, BEFORE Zakara bonked him on the head, annoyed at the laughing.

"Will you shut that up? Jeez, you remind me of Flame when Erazur allowed him to slaughter the aliens." She chided the humbled Bijuu. Shukaku growled at her, raising an arm that had suddenly gotten covered by copious amounts of sand and was now a deadly claw.

Then, an INSANE amount of killing intent was directed at him, making him lose concentration. It was so powerful, that he, a Bijuu, could barely breath, wheezing with effort.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I hope you're not gonna go and try to hurt my mate Shukaku." Cross asked good-naturedly with a smile, yet, Shukaku could feel that the killing intent was coming from him. HOW a seemingly normal human like him could radiate enough killing intent to make a Bijuu like him cower. Wait!

Shukaku turned his head to the net and markings on the ground he had made. His eyes widened, and for the third time in his life, he felt fear strike his core. He had DARED try to harm a MATE a mate of all things! Of such a being! Straining to do so, he managed to rasp out; "O-of course not" and with that, the killing intent disappeared, as if it had never existed. He gasped, taking in deep mouthfuls of air.

Zakara sent him a haughty smirk but he ignored it as Cross stepped in front of him and bent over to look him in the eye. "I've heard about past Jinchuurikis of yours Shukaku. How they can't take a moment of sleep for fear of you taking over" His eyes narrowed dangerously, making Shukaku gulp "I don't like it" He said cryptically "I'm going to make Gaara my apprentice Shukaku. And he will need all the sleep he can get. Next time he gets called for bedtime, I want him to be able to sleep, if not...then..." The smile on his face terrified him to his very core. Shukaku considered himself to be one of the more bloodthirsty Bijuu, and rarely showed fear, the other two times he had been scared was from the Shinigami and Kyuubi when she got PMS.

But this, this made him feel like everything he had done, and everything he could ever do was nothing. Nothing compared to the likes that he HAD done, and what he COULD do, seemed to be enough to scare even the Shinigami himself. Heck, he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out this Cross Avedon WAS more powerful than Shinigami himself. **(A/N: Actually, that was ONCE a fact, but I'll get to that explanation later in the story)**

Fearing for his safety, Shukaku nodded his head, and Cross bent back up, the smile on his face now that of a kid who got what he wanted. "Good. Now..." Shukaku almost expected Cross to suddenly turn into a monster because of the implications of what he said "Time to play Volleyball!" He proclaimed, lifting the ball.

Zakara chuckled from her spot, and watched as her mate played Volleyball with Shukaku, Ichibi Bijuu, in which where surprisingly, Cross actually lost. As it turns out, Shukaku was a natural at the game.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Thank you Cross-san, for getting Shukaku to...umm..." Gaara was at lost for words, wondering how to 'shut up' in another term.

Cross groaned in frustration. "Kid, quit it. You've already thanked me seven times. And you can say 'shut up' whenever you want. No one's the boss of you kid."

Gaara had all but glomped and worshipped him when he had discovered that thanks to his 'persuasion techniques', Shukaku had stopped trying to take over his mind, allowing him to sleep. For someone who had never slept since birth, it was like a gift from the Gods themselves. That and the fact that he and Zakara hardly minded the fact that he was the container of Shukaku was another bonus. At least now he had two more people to add to his (EXTREMELY short [read: one]) list of loved ones.

"So, Gaara, just so we know, any family relations, friends, stuff that's important to you?" Zakara asked the Jinchuuriki.

Gaara's face fell a bit as memories assaulted him. Noticing the expression on his face, Cross frowned, having no love for people who were depressed for any constant period of time. "Chin and up and lighten up dude. A 'gloom and doom' persona doesn't help anyone. Ever." _'Or at least anyone worth mentioning.'_ He thought the last part to himself.

Gaara seemed to unwind a bit after this. "Well, I have my siblings Kankouro and Temari and my father. My Kaa-san..." Idly, Gaara wondered if they would still accept him even if they discovered that his other had been used as a sacrifice for sealing Shukaku. Albeit, it was because of the sealing and Shukaku, but still.

Cross shook his head at the continuously depressed child. "Kid, if you don't wanna tell us or it's a personal thing, then don't. We're not interrogating you or sumthin." He voiced out. Mentally, he was cursing at the treatment he must have gotten to be so damn depressed. Sure, he looks fine physically, but mentally and socially, he was starved to near death. Currently, he was only worried about what this would do to hamper his plans for Gaara becoming his apprentice. But he knew for a fact that kids had a..._tendency_...to get under your skin given enough time. And with Gaara becoming his apprentice, he held no illusions to what could happen.

Yes, he was a mass murderer back from where he came from. Killing sprees numbering in the hundreds in public places back in his home. No exceptions. The sick, elderly, children, women, even newborns and pregnant mothers. However, with those that DO develop close ties to him, he was extremely protective of them and didn't want any sadness befalling them. So if it was all but certain that Gaara was going to become a close friend to him, he wanted him to be happy at the least. Once everything got settled down, oh, he was SO gonna re-enact one of his greatest massacres...

"Cross is right Gaara. If you don't want to tell, you don't have to. But I want you to know that you can trust us with anything. We won't take anything against you without actual good reason." Zakara promised the boy.

Gaara shook his doubts away. Cross and Zakara had accepted him as the container of the bijuu and not the bijuu itself. and from what Zakara said, they would probably understand. He took a deep breath to steady himself. "My Kaa-san...died as a sacrifice to seal the Shukaku into me." He admitted.

Cross merely raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's new. At least you didn't personally kill her at birth" He remembered a certain megalomaniac Rifter "man, the guy who did it still gives me the shivers." He stretched, popping some bones and cracking his neck. Gaara paled at the thought of someone who would do such a thing, however, he became more worried when he saw Cross.

Cross was shuddering, but not in fear of the memory, he was smiling insanely, the smile nearly reaching his ears and near-silent maniacal cackling coming from his mouth, a dark aura had surrounded him, and Gaara was slowly backing away from the insane person. "Good times hehehe, good times..." He was continuously muttering this like a crackpot and the thoughts in his head would scare even the Shinigami.

Zakara groaned, noticing that Cross was in another one of his violent flashbacks of wanton violence, death and destruction. Sighing, she hit him with the already bent crowbar as hard as she could. The crowbar bent into the shape of his head from the force of the blow, and a spurt of blood originated from his cranium, felling him like a sack of potatoes.

"Don't worry kid. He's taken worse. And trust me, it was sorely needed. Whenever his flashbacks stay on for too much, he forgets the present and thinks he's back in the past. When that happens, he re-enacts the bloodbath that he's having a flashback off. Trust me, it isn't pretty." She assured the worried boy.

As if to enforce her claim, Cross was up in an instant, his head wound which had originally shown the strangely-glowing bluish-white bone-wait a minute! Glowing?!

Gaara scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he wondered if it was a trick of the light that he thought the bone was glowing and bluish. No matter. Cross was okay and that was all that matters.

Said maniac wiped the blood from his face with his hand, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Lost myself for a while there." He said. "told ya" Zakara muttered, before noticing that it was already dark. "Hmm, Gaara, as much as I'd like to be with you, it's already night. We'll have to escort you to your household now."

Gaara mood dropped at the thought of being left by his new friends. Cross once again noticed this. "Gaara, dude, we're gonna be staying in this place for a while do you'll still be able to see us. We're...travelers, you see." He bluffed.

"Yatta!" Gaara screamed in delight. Strangely enough, why did Cross and Zakara have a feeling that they're forgetting something?

"Hey, where's Ciel?" Zakara suddenly voiced out and Cross flinched.

"Aw crud"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Oh no oh no oh no! This can't be happening!' Were the thoughts running through Ciel's head.

Now, what could be possibly be so bad that she was near hysteria? Let me tell you: she's LOST.

Yes, she's lost. For someone can navigate throughout a planet 214 times the size of earth whose ENTIRE geography changes at least every decade, being lost is an all-time low.

The stares everyone was giving her didn't help either. Then again, you WOULD stare if you saw a strange girl wearing a sunshine dress panicking and looking everywhichway with bloodshot eyes.

Suddenly, Zakara appeared and grabbed Ciel, before disappearing with her.

A shinobi on duty on duty widened his eyes at the sight before deciding to tail her. There was a very faint energy signature but he could manage. Disappearing girls were CERTAINLY something to be noted.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ciel clung to Zakara, as if making sure that she was not a manifestation from her mind. It had happened before, it could happen again.

"phew. That was close. Next time girl, don't run off from us." Zakara scolded the bawling girl as she nodded feverishly.

After a few minutes, they were finally able to calm down the hysterical female. Not an easy task mind you.

Then, Ciel noticed Gaara. She looked at him intensely, most notably around his eyes. "Tanuki" she muttered.

"Raccoon dog?" Cross asked, and she nodded stepping close to Gaara and tracing the deep black lines, before smiling and cuddling the red-haired boy.

Zakara and Cross sweatdropped. Ciel was decidedly too obsessed with animal-like individuals for her own good. Did she even notice that she was choking the poor boy? Geez, the girl doesn't know her own strength. Briefly, Cross wondered if it would be fun to let Shukaku take control and have HIM get cuddled by the girl.

Unbeknownst to them, the shinobi that had tailed Zakara frowned at this show of affection. Who were these people that were interacting with their Jinchuuriki? He would have to report this to the Kazekage.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The fourth Kazekage frowned at the news.

No one had heard of these three people before. Were they here to steal their Jinchuuriki? Yes, they probably were. He would have to assassinate them together with that failure of an experiment Gaara. He pressed a button below his desk and numerous shinobi appeared. He would have to pull no punches when his enemies' abilities were unknown.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cross reclined on a couch in Gaara's house. Somehow, the kid had managed to convince them to stay with them when he discovered that they hadn't found a home yet. Well, he wasn't complaining if they got free lodging.

Meanwhile, Zakara and Ciel were chatting about...stuff that girls chat about.

"So kid, since I doubt you live just by yourself, there must be someone else who lives in this house. Who would it be then?"

"M-my uncle. Yashamaru. He must be out buying groceries."

"Ahh" was all that Cross said.

Then, the door opened, and all four inhabitants turned to the sound. A blonde female-looking man entered with two large bags of groceries. "Gaara, I'm home." He proclaimed, before noticing the three other people in the house.

"I would say 'hi dude' but I have doubts of your masculinity." Cross stated bluntly, right before Zakara punched his head to the ground, making a small crater.

"Sorry about that. He tends to be an asshole. Name's Zakara. The girl in the dress is Ciel and the idiot that is my mate is Cross" She introduced them. Cross gave a muffled "hi" and waved as he tried to pry his head from the ground.

"Umm...hi?" Yashamaru greeted.

Finally managing to pull his head from the ground, Cross tapped his ears, trickles of sand flowing out. "So you must be Yashamaru. Gaara said you're pretty much the only one around these parts who doesn't hate him. I like that, and you better stay that way cause if not, then I would've killed ya already." He threatened, making Zakara hit him again and Yashamaru to sweatdrop as she continuously slammed his head on the ground.

"Well, I guess that means you're friends of Gaara. I'll just make some food. Keep yourselves comfortable" with that said, he walked into the kitchen and started preparing their dinner.

Cross grabbed Zakara's hand as she started to slam him again, the serious look on his face stopping her cold. "Something's coming, and I want you two to be ready. That Yashamaru is a liar." He whispered, and she nodded.

Everything proceeded without any wanton violence from then on, as the two girls went back to chatting and Cross and Gaara talked to each other until the food was prepared and they started eating. Somewhere along the way, Yashamaru said that he was going to get something from the kitchen and walked out of the room.

That was when the attack started.

Kunai tagged with exploding notes entered through the windows, embedding themselves into the table. Gaara's eyes widened and sand rose to cover him as the danger set in.

The notes finally burned out, and exploded.

Zakara just flicked a lazy finger in reaction.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The eighteen shinobi that had gathered outside frowned as no explosion was heard.

It was possible for an explosive note to be a dud, but thirteen duds at the same time was damn near impossible. What had happened?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gaara watched in awe as the explosion was kept at bay. It wasn't as if it was in a barrier, but more as if there was more space than the blast radius in the small expanse of the table.

The fires spiked once, twice, thrice, before dimming and finally disappearing. A loud 'whoosh' like air entering an enclosed space was heard as the table was revealed to be relatively unharmed, the only sign of the blast was the spherical indenture on the table.

The three stood up, and Gaara stared, transfixed as Cross pulled out his one of his modified desert eagles and Ciel's brown eyes glowed a silver green as a magnificent longbow appeared in her grasp. Zakara just yawned.

"Kid, get behind us" Cross told him, a maniacal grin forming on his place as his hands shook from excitement.

The wall from where the windows were on suddenly exploded, the chunks of hard sand heading straight for them. Ciel, in a show of incredible marksmanship fired near-invisible arrows of wind energy at the debris, obliterating the pieces on impact, all in barely a second.

From the large opening on the wall, they could now see the eighteen shinobi that had tried to kill them. "Hehehe, Ciel, take Gaara somewhere safe. I'm gonna cut loose and vent some of my frustration on these guys, and Gaara might get hurt, so get him far away, but not too far." He instructed her as the shinobis entered the room from the fissure.

She nodded, grasping Gaara's hand and escorting him away from the room. The shinobis' eyes trailed on Gaara's retreating figure.

"Now now now, don't tell me you're gonna ignore me and chase after Gaara" he started talking, pacing left and right constantly "Tsk tsk tsk, ya know, that's a sign of-" the frontmost shinobi; a jounin, found himself with the barrel of a gun jammed down his throat "DISRESPECT!" Cross screamed, pulling the trigger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are they going to be alright?" Gaara asked Ciel, worried for his new friends' safety.

"I'd be surprised if they weren't. Those two are some of the toughest people I have met. Those guys don't stand a chance so don't worry." She assured him as numerous pained screams erupted from the room. She could only imagine the slaughter Cross had initiated.

Gaara shook his head as he heard the screams, and Ciel urged him to continue to the roof where there was only a low chance that he might get hit by a stray blast. It didn't need to be really far away when Zakara was with him. She spoke from experience.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The eighteen ninjas were all high-jounin to high-ANBU level, and yet, the battle was entirely one-sided.

Cross dodged a dozen fuuton jutsus, a virtual swarm of shuriken, seven fireballs, a lightning bolt and twin titanic gouts of water with barely millimeters to spare as his body weaved through the attacks. A jounin charged at him with a kunai.

What a stupid thing to do.

Cross's arm grabbed onto the jounin's wrist. His hand clenched tightly, painfully, and the sick crack of bone breaking filled the air as the man screamed in pain. He grinned maliciously, before taking a firmer grip and wrenching the arm from his shoulder in a shower of blood.

Desperately, the man grabbed a kunai with his remaining arm and tried to stab him with it. Read: TRIED.

He seized the man's hand and forcefully directed it to right in front of the ninja's mouth. He reveled in the sight of the man quivering in fear as he plunged it deep into his mouth with bone-shattering force. The man fell down, trying in vain to scream as the kunai had damaged his vocal cords. Then, just for the heck of it, he pointed his gun at his crotch, laughing insanely as the man's eyes widened in horror as the implications set in. Couldn't he at least let him die with his manhood intact? Nope. Not at all.

The other seventeen ninjas cringed in phantom pain as Cross fired three shots into the man's most sacred place. "Anyone else?" He asked, turning to the ninjas and pointing his gun at them.

Nodding to each other, they rushed him, hoping to overwhelm him with numbers. Honestly, didn't they learn from the dead man's example? He guessed not.

Zakara decided to join the fray at this point. Her form appeared in front of him, running straight for the enemy. The ninjas fired several shuriken, all of which missed terribly, the space around Zakara distorting and making the projectiles seemingly slide across her form. Then, she teleported in their midst, surprising the combatants.

Using their momentary shock to her advantage, she slammed a palm thrust into their midsection not unlike a Hyuuga's Jyuuken. With that done, she disappeared, an not a moment too soon as a katon jutsu impacted the ground she was formerly on. The two ninjas she had hit seemed to be fine, forming hand seals for some wind jutsus when-

"AAAARRRRGGHHH!" They screamed, clutching their stomachs as they squirmed on the ground in pain. Everyone watched in sick fascination as their belly seemed to bulge out before breaking open in a shower of digestive enzymes. Their intestines had disappeared, but not the stomach acids, which had eaten through their bodies from the inside out.

"Looking for these?" She questioned, lifting two twin bloody appendages. Upon closer inspection, they discovered they were their comrades' intestines. A ninja threw up his lunch then and there.

"You bitch" One yelled in anger, finishing a series of hand seals and proclaiming; **"Fuuton: Renkuudan!"** (Wind Release: Drilling Air Projectile)Several spheres of compressed air blasted out of his mouth at Zakara at insane speeds. By the looks of it, it seemed that there was no chance this one would miss. Just as the sphere were about to hit her-

An absolutely GIGANTIC cone of hellfire erupted from Cross outstretched palm, burning through the air itself and incinerating the ninja that had DARED try to harm his mate until not even ashes remained.

The remaining fourteen ninjas gulped as foul energy erupted from Cross. It was beyond anything they had ever felt, powerful beyond measure, ancient beyond recognition, it made the bijuus seem like a bunch of harmless garden animals. Two of them wet themselves when with a sickening crack, three-feet-long bluish-white and glowing bone blades erupted from his palms.

Zakara chuckled at her mate's overprotectiveness as the screaming started.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ciel shivered as the screams of terror started anew. Apparently, some idiot had tried to attack Zakara.

If they knew the consequences of such an action, they would steer WAY clear of her. But since they didn't they were paying for it. She shifted to Gaara. "Hey, don't worry about them too much. None of the ninjas can even come close to hurting those two." She told him.

Gaara gave her a weak smile in return. Despite how powerful or strong Cross and Zakara seemed, he couldn't help but worry for them. You can't just leave two of your closest friends to eighteen experienced shinobi and not have a case of doom syndrome.

Ciel gave returned his smile with one of her own. She knew about Cross's..._questionable_ history, of how he had committed atrocities beyond most people's imagining, but that was just part of the strange being that was Cross Avedon. One thing was sure though, those that he took a liking to would find themselves protected by the greatest family line in existence. If only Gaara knew the amount of protection he had obtained just by being friends with Cross.

As Ciel was thinking of this, a masked figure was finishing the last of a series of hand seals, before breathing deeply and spouting a large fireball at her.

She heard the roar of fire, and turned around just in time to get a katon jutsu straight in the face.

The fireball impacted her, and exploded, throwing her limp body off the roof.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Zakara sipped her tea, oblivious to the scene of utter carnage around her once Cross had gone berserk.

The walls were painted red with blood, flecked with numerous patches of flesh and bone.

A body was in pieces, as if some giant chef had chopped him up into clean little parts.

Another had hit the wall so hard and fast, his body had taken the consistency of jelly and seemed as if it had been SMEARED on the wall.

Two bodies had been reduced into deformed messes, barbecued slowly by the flames of Hell itself.

On a corner of the room, there was a heap of body parts, most of them seemingly wrenched apart from their bodies.

And on another wall, a man was held in place by numerous bone spikes, very painful, but far from fatal. She had managed to convince him to leave one alive for the sake of information.

A body fell down from the roof, becoming visible from the hole made from the start of the battle. It slammed into the ground with a resounding crash, and Zakara blinked rapidly as the information reached her brain. "Ciel?" She glanced at her mate, who was just resetting his bone blades. "Cross, come on, I think that was Ciel" She urged him, grabbing his arm and teleporting to the ground.

They were privy to the sight of a slightly burned Ciel groaning in annoyance. "Oww, remind me to stay away from fireballs" She muttered as she shakily stood up. She was relatively unharmed, her clothes not even singed due to the materials they were made from.

"Hey, if you're here...then what's happening to Gaara?" Cross asked, before his eyes widened in revelation. "AW SHIT!" He howled, turning his head in Gaara's direction. His sensitive ears heard the telltale hiss of several explosive tags burning out. He gritted his teeth and sped up the roof, defying gravity with the speed he was going.

No way in hell was Gaara gonna die on him now.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gaara cried as he watched Yashamaru open his vest, showing the numerous exploding tags on it.

He had been livid with hatred when he saw Ciel killed by the masked ninja, and he had attacked with abandon, but had stopped when he saw that it was Yashamaru, the first person that had ever cared for him...or so he thought.

Betrayal truly stung deep.

He only added salt to the wounds by his proclamation of how he never cared for him, and by his request to just die. Further breaking his already shattered psyche.

'_Maybe I really should just die'_ He thought as the tags burned out and exploded.

But before the fire could reach him, he felt a pair of warm arms encircle him, a body covering his own to protect him from the onslaught of heat from the explosion.

He felt the wind whip through his clothes, the blaring heat from the explosive chakra and the sheer concussive force that threatened to blow him away, but he was protected from it all by the one who was holding him.

Finally, he felt the explosion subside, and he looked upon his savior with no small emotion as he stood up, his black hair swaying in the breeze. "Jeez kid, common sense much? When you see a suicide bomber, you run way NOT stay where you are. Are you mental or something? Cause if you are, then that probably explains it." He muttered, as if he didn't just shoulder through a point blank explosion from several explosive notes.

He studied the bloody smear that was once Yashamaru and sighed. "I know how you feel kid. Betrayal stinks, and it hurts like a fuckin chainsaw up the ass. But moping around and acting like an angst-machine doesn't solve anything." He knelt down in front of Gaara and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Most humans are assholes, thinking they're the best and wanting to control and understand everything, which is why they fear the different, which they can't control or understand. You're different Gaara, but not that different. You're a human. You're just the jailor of something that isn't. These people just can't see that."

Cross sighed once again as the breeze wafted through his hair. "I'm not good with talking about stuff like this kid, and that's all I can say about it. My mind's drawing a blank." He walked away and sat on an elevated surface. "My mom always said that the truth works best, so I'll test that right now." He looked at Gaara in the eye. "I came here because I wanted an apprentice and I sensed something that resembled something that I once was. It was actually yours and Shukaku's chakra and mentality mixing together. Gaara, I chose you as my apprentice the moment I set out to find it out." Gaara's eyes shone with hope at this. The prospect of becoming an apprentice of Cross didn't seem so bad.

"I've already accepted you for what you are Gaara, as a human being and the jailor of a demon, not the demon itself. However..." He took a deep breath as his energy gathered. "...can you accept me, knowing that I am NOT a human?" He asked, as his form changed.

Red eyes turned an even bloodier shade of red, his onyx hair became riddled with streaks of red, and his skin changed into a pale, red and white armor-like constitution as his body grew to six feet. His nails lengthened and turned black, sharpening into claws that could cut through diamonds with ease. Finally, a scaly tail formed behind him and two large, black bat-like wings grew and took shape.

"**You are the jailor of a demon Gaara. But you are a human. Can you still see me as a friend and a possible mentor when you know that I am a Damned Devil. A being deeper into the abyss of darkness than any of the tailed demons?"** He asked in his new, deeper voice.

Gaara's throat was dry as he stared at Cross, at his true form. Inside his mind, Shukaku quivered in fear. Now that he knew what Cross was, he was extremely relieved that he hadn't stood up to him. He was a tailed demon, but this one was a DEVIL.

He closed his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Yes. You're the first one that's ever shown actual acceptance of me. If someone were to choose between an accepting monster and a human that hates him, he would choose the monster." He pointed out, and Cross smiled, his form reverting to that of his human form.

"You chose well kid. Remember this: not all of the darkness is evil, and not all of light is good. The yin-yang symbol is a perfect representation of this, and it's a damn fact." He smiled, and Gaara wiped away the tears, happy to have finally found a true friend.

"*sniffle* That was so beautiful. Didn't know you had it in you." Zakara suddenly butted in, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. "I know. That was so...heartwarming." Ciel added as the two girls hugged each other.

"...oooookaaaaay..." Cross uttered, freaked out by the girls.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! I'LL TELL YOU! JUST STOP!" The ninja screamed as Cross SLOWLY burned his body with an extremely small burst of hellfire. He had to admit, the ninja was a tough nut to crack, but he had to give in one way or another.

"Heh, good. Now tell me, who is it that told you to assassinate Gaara here?" He asked.

They were back in the room where Cross had annihilated the ninjas, and were torturing the sole survivor for information. This was the scene that Temari and Kankuro entered. In which where they Kankuro fainted and Temari threw up her dinner.

Cross merely glanced at them. "Oh, hey there you two. If you're hungry, the food's in the kitchen. Now would you mind? I'm torturing someone." He said, annoyed, and acting as if torturing someone was an everyday thing. Then again, for Cross Avedon? It IS.

"G-G-Gaara, wh-who are these people?" Temari asked, pointing at the trio. "Cross Avedon. Damned Devil and in the middle of torture. The beautiful girl with red hair is Zakara and the chick that's talking to the chicken is Ciel." He answered quickly, jerkin his thumb at the two. "Now then, answer my question dude!" He yelled at the captive.

Ciel groaned and picked up the unconscious male before gesturing for Temari to follow her, the chicken held by her other arm. "I'll just explain everything to these two. You three can go and leave without me." She told them as she splashed cold water on Kankuro's head and went to explaining everything. If they didn't believe her, then a sample of her powers would probably do the trick. Then again, the carnage in the other room should be enough.

Anyway, back to interrogation.

"I-it was the Kazekage! He said that the boy was a failed experiment and deserved to die and he was suspicious that you three were there just to steal Suna's Jinchuuriki away!" He blurted out.

Cross rolled his eyes. "Jeez, leaders these days. Are ALL of them megalomaniacs now?" He wondered to himself. "Well, since your usefulness has lived itself out, I'm gonna go and do something to ya." He informed the captive.

"What?! Oh no, please no!" He pleaded.

"Nuh-uh-uh. You're the captive, you don't give me orders." He formed an orb of shadow. "You know what to do." He told the sphere, and it grew a tentacle and wrenched the man from the wall before floating through the opening outside.

"What did you order that thing?" Zakara asked him.

"Oh, nothing much, just to hang him upside-down from a lamppost by his dick and slap him with his arms and legs before cooking those and forcing them down-well, actually, UP his throat since he's upside down." He answered nonchalantly. Zakara's grin would have unnerved lesser men but Cross was used to it.

"Well kid. Time to pay your father a visit." Cross told Gaara, smiling at the prospect of a battle with a Kage, who was supposed to be the strongest ninja in the village.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Fourth Kazekage looked up from his paperwork. "Tsk. Stupid ninja. They can't even take care of a few annoying pests by the fact you three are here." He muttered, glaring at Cross.

The devil grinned at him. "As if any of those assholes can kill us" his eyes hardened, all trace of mirth gone "and right now, I'm not in the mood for your assholeyness." **(A/N: Is that even a word? Probably not)**

"And what are you implying with that?" The Kage questioned.

Cross pulled out his gun and twirled it around his finger. "I don't appreciate you sending out assassins to kill Gaara here. If he's gonna become my apprentice, he can do without the constant interruptions" _'Though the chance to kill someone without fear of retribution is a good thing' _He thought the last part to himself.

"Hmph. You have no right to request anything from me whelp. And why anyone would want to have that failure as an apprentice is beyond me." He didn't even bat an eye when he found the barrel of a gun right in front of his face. Cross had seen Gaara's forlorn look and apparently, he didn't like his friends getting sad.

"I know your kind of people Mr. Kazekage. And only a show of force will convince your type. So I propose a deal."

"What could you possibly have that I would want?"

"I know that you can sense how powerful I am. What would you do to have that power under your control?"

"I'm listening."

Cross smirked. "We battle. You win, I become your servant where your word is absolute. I win, you stop sending out assassins and we get to kill anyone who so much as looks at us wrong and I get to stay and take Gaara as my apprentice" He offered.

His response was an extremely power gust of wind that sent him crashing through the wall and falling outside. Gaara reached out to make his sand grab him but Zakara hand stopped him. He looked up to her. "No. This is his battle. We can do nothing about it." She told him, and Gaara reluctantly complied.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cross grinned as the wind ruffled his clothing. Apparently, this was his way of saying 'yes'. If he wasn't an asshole to Gaara and a lousy father, he would've liked the guy. He tilted his body so that he was upright before he landed on the ground in a crouch, with one hand on the ground to stabilize himself. He tightened his grip on his gun as the Kage alighted lightly with the help of some unknown wind jutsu. He took out his other desert eagle. This time, he wouldn't be pulling any punches...in human form.

He was slightly disappointed by the fact that no one could match him in his devil form. In his human form, his energy was equivalent to a low S-Rank ninja and all of the energy that the Kage had sensed from him was simply his human energy. If he could sense his devil energy, the man would piss himself from the sheer amount he had. It wouldn't even be deserving of being called a battle if he used his devil powers. Then again, he COULD use _some_ of his powers to make it interesting.

He started shooting. Six bullets fired in rapid succession, all heading straight for the Kage.

"**Fuuton! Daitoppa!"** (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough) The Kage yelled out, and a divine gust came and stopped the rush of the steel projectiles, dragging numerous objects and debris as the wind continued in its crusade to destroy Cross.

Hellfire gathered in his arms as the virtual windstorm neared him. Then, he threw the concentrated sphere at the current of air. Eternal fires of Hell, meet combustible oxygen. Combustible oxygen, meet Eternal fires of Hell.

The Kage wondered what it was that he saw him throwing before his eyes widened.

Aw shit.

He turned tail and ran.

And not a moment too soon.

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

The resulting explosion decimated everything within thirty-five feet. The gigantic crater was riddled with burning objects and most of the sand had turned into glass.

"Very good. I almost thought you were just someone with a lot of chakra and no actual training. Suna will prosper when your power is added to our ranks" The Kage voiced out.

"That is IF my power is added to your ranks" He reminded him, bringing his guns back in his cloak as the sound of metal sliding over metal was heard.

The Kage frowned as Cross unsheathed twin katanas, their silver steel shining eerily in the light of the night. Cross sunk into his own shadow, frustrating the Kage as he tried to find him.

From the tower, Zakara smiled. "Gaara, what is the shadow no man suspects?"

Seeing his perplexed expression, she decided to answer her own question. "His own."

The Kage barely dodged the blade that had sprouted from his own shadow. "What the hell?!" He swore as Cross rose from the darkness.

"That was another one of my tricks." His blades became covered with darkness, their reach increasing as a few inches were added by the darkness and he started slicing at him. In retaliation, the Kage created two wind spears, matching Cross blow for blow. Seeing that none of them was gaining the advantage, the Kage used one of his skills. "Kaze no Yaiba!"

A cutting whirlwind formed around Cross. He merely grinned as the attack seemingly tore him to Bloody shreds. The Kage scoffed. "I know you're still alive. Show yourself"

"Nope, I like not being spotted thank you very much. Though I will show you a few of my friends." He replied, his voice sounding everywhere. "First off is Mr. Crash and Burn!" A barely noticeable pop was heard, and the Kage's eyes widened before jumping away.

A rocket slammed into the ground he was on a second ago, incinerating everything around it.

"Then there's the Baby Booms!"

Then, a multitude of grenades were thrown at him.

He didn't know what the round objects were, but he knew that those things were dangerous, and seeing as he couldn't make it past the grenade-filled area in time, he used a wind jutsu to get into the air and hopefully get out of whatever those things' range was.

This proved to be a wise decision as the field was devastated when the grenades exploded.

By now, the Kage was seriously doubting his chances of winning.

"Aww, scared already? Don't be, that's not all I can do" Cross walked out of the shadow of a rock, his grin unnerving him as he started a series of hand seals.

"Watch this: **Hellish Arts: Rising Hell Fortress of Doom!"** He proclaimed, and hellish energy spread throughout the field, before darkness covered the land and a citadel made of black and red pulsing stone rose.

The Kage watched in amazement as the summoning was finished.

He was surrounded on all sides by massive walls, reaching higher than his tower. The buildings inside the stronghold went even higher, and inside the windows, he could see glimpses of figures not of this world. "Impressive" He commented, finding Cross to be balancing on the tip of a spire.

"Meh, I know. Annoyingly though, Erazur can summon this place's opposite. Well, back to the battle. Let's hope you can take these guys on!" With a flourish, numerous gates opened and a horde of demons and monsters pushed through the openings.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Numerous ninja came into the scene when they felt the chakra and energy of the two combatants spike. They came just in time to see the fortress rise, but they were still able to see their Kage before he his form was obstructed by the walls of the castle.

They tried climbing up the tower but for some reason, their chakra wasn't able to stick to the surface. They were about to cast some jutsus to break in when Zakara appeared before them.

"Get out of our way bitch! Our Kage is in there!" One ordered her.

"Sorry, but this is their battle. No interruptions" She told them, infuriating the ninjas.

"If you won't stand aside, we'll make you." The ninjas proclaimed as they ran towards her.

Zakara grinned at them. "Sure sure, I haven't gotten much action since Cross is overprotective, but since he's busy. I can finally cut loose." She muttered as the ninjas neared her, only for her to disappear.

"Hey, where did she go?"

"Right here" She answered, appearing behind them.

One ninja got fed up and prepared to use a wind jutsu on her. **"Fuuton: Fuuryuudan no Jutsu! (Wind Style: Wind Dragon Projectile)"** He breathed deeply and was about to create the dragon from his mouth when he stopped. Mainly because his head wasn't on his shoulder anymore.

Everyone blinked, confused, looking at the dead nin's body and Zakara, whose outstretched hand held the man's head.

"H-how did that happen?"

Zakara smile sent chills down their spine. "That's for me to know and you to find out." She told them as she dropped the head and gestured for them to come at her.

That made snap out of their surprise and attack.

She clenched her fists, gathering her unique energy as five nins reached her. **"Distort"** She uttered, as she pointed her palms at the shinobi.

The Shinobi screamed as the space around them deformed, their bodies changing with it. Two of them seemed to twist into a spiral, their bodies dying as their organs and brains were unable to do their jobs properly due to the malformed space.

One had its body parts misplaced. Its left arm was attached to his neck, and his head was affixed to where his left leg was supposed to be. His spinal cord was sticking out of his right leg and his right arm had several organs throbbing inside it. Within seconds, he was dead, his new body being unable to support life.

The last two had connected when the space around them distorted. Now they were a mess of groaning body parts, not even deserving of being called a body as several ninja threw up at the sight of the bloated mess.

"Well, still wanna go against me?" she asked them, and the majority of the ninjas ran away from her. She chuckled as the stubborn ninjas prepared jutsus to attack her. "Now that won't do." She snapped her fingers as she cast one of her most powerful attacks. **"Black Hole"** She proclaimed, and the screams of pain and horror sounded throughout Suna as the destructive force of a black hole annihilated the remaining ninjas.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Fourth Kazekage fell down to the ground, his chakra completely depleted.

He had used every trick he had, every ounce of skill in him and yet, he hadn't even come close to defeating him. Not even **Kaze Kuiki** worked.

"Mah, so this is all that you've got? Pathetic. Well, I guess I shouldn't have placed that high hopes on your kind." Cross said out loud, enraging the Kage. But he couldn't do anything about it. He had lost fair and square, as summons were considered to be a part of ninja battles.

Cross clapped his hands together once, twice, and a large rumbling was heard as the fortress of hell receded back to where it came from. "You lost, and you know what that means."

"I know." He replied, as his consciousness left him.

Cross grinned at the answer. "Good. Now then, I wonder how Gaara and Zakara are doing"

"We're doing fine. It's not as if a Harbringer's gonna pop up while you're gone" Zakara's voice chided him. He turned around to see her leaning on a house with Gaara beside her.

"Meh, I guess so" He ruffled Gaara's hair. "Well kid, problem's solved. Now we only have to train you and stuff." He told them the good news and Gaara hugged him, yelling; "YATTA!"

"Hey kid! No hugging!" Cross groaned, trying to pry the happy kid off him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So you're telling me that you three came here because Cross the Damned Devil wanted an apprentice and Gaara fit the description. Then, when you three were eating, eighteen ninjas attacked you and he and Zakara pretty much kicked their asses while you got blown off the roof by a katon jutsu from Yashamaru who tried to kill Gaara who killed him and now Cross is going to 'convince' the Kazekage to stop sending assassins to kill Gaara. Am I getting that right?" Temari reiterated.

Ciel nodded.

"Do you know how unbelievable that sounds?"

"Yep! And you better believe it! Cause I just beat that asshole!" Cross's cheery voice sounded from the doorway. "Hey there!" He waved.

"W-what? That can't be! No matter how powerful you are, it can't be that you beat him!" Kankuro protested, having seen the Kazekage in battle once and had no idea about Cross.

Oh the idiocy.

He immediately shut up when Cross suddenly appeared in front of him in his devil form, his right hand nearly touching his face and glowing in dark energy and his long tail swinging back and forth in an agitated manner. **"Care to say that again dumbass?"** He told him, and the energy in his hands formed into a six wicked-looking blades attached to his wrist, and a drooling mouth on his palm.

He pissed himself then and there. Really creepy and scary stuff like damned devils in their true form and drooling hand-mouth-thingies with blades does that to you.

"**Ugh, what's that smell?" **He looked down **"Geez, ya pissed yourself. LITERALLY! Get outta my sight kid before I have the urge to shoot you with a Glock for no reason at all"** Kankuro was all too happy to oblige, running away screaming. He glared at the ground and caked it with a burst of hellfire, incinerating the smell. **"That's better"** He turned back into his human form.

The he noticed Temari's shaking figure. "Hey, is the girl feeling cold? I barely notice since I've already forgotten how frail humans are." He asked Ciel.

"No. You're scaring her. Don't you know how scary it is for a human to see a damned devil?" She scolded him.

"Umm...nope. Cause back when I was a human, I kicked devil ass when I was nine!" He boasted, striking pose.

Temari looked between the eccentric damned devil and the dress-wearing girl, disturbed by how they referred to her as 'human'. Does this mean that she and the red-haired one are devils too? "Y-you say 'human' as if you're not. Don't tell me you two girls are devils too." She voiced out her thoughts.

Cross put a hand to his chin. "Umm...nope. I'm the only devil here. The hot chick Zakara" He jerked his thumb at her and she gave him a grin at the compliment "Is a Varo Rifter. A being from the void. She pretty much lords over space and stuff" He glanced at Ciel "The girl wearing a dress is Ciel. She's a Prima Terranian. An Alien" Seeing her confused expression, he decided to add more information. "Ya know, a life form from another planet? From beyond the stars?" He gestured to the night sky and she nodded slowly "Well, her race is so-called the 'pinnacle of evolution'. I don't know how they got that title when they're all just tree huggers. Heck, their King and the guy she has a crush on is just a glorified hippie." He finished stupidly.

Zakara sighed in disappointment. It seems Cross didn't learn his lesson even after the sixteenth time this happened.

Cross was suddenly impaled on the chest, arms, legs, and neck by forty piercing arrows made of wind energy. A following twenty exploding wind arrows battered his already wounded body and ten nature shrapnel arrows made each flow of his blood painful and deadly. A final Aero-burst arrow sent him blasting through the wall and falling outside. All this happened in a span of two seconds.

Temari hid behind the couch, scared nearly to death by Ciel's sudden change of psyche.

Gone was the carefree girl and the timid attitude. In her place was the virtual representation of the divine wrath of a woman, Ingenium Procella; the fused form of her two bows (Ventus-wind element/Vis-Natura-nature element), held tightly in her hands and the bowstring still quivering from her sudden barrage and her face set into a tight visage of pure and utter fury. Despite not knowing her for more than an hour, Temari couldn't help but be awed by this side of Ciel.

Through it all, Zakara just sipped her tea as Gaara came in and started hyperventilating at the seemingly fatal wounds of his friend.

They heard a fair bit of yelling and a few groans of protest as Cross managed to recover and scale the wall back to the room, where he was promptly hit on the head by Zakara for being an idiot. "That's the seventeenth time you idiot. When will you learn?" She reprimanded him.

"As soon as Crenike stops being a hippie"

_Thwack Thwack Thwack Screech Boom Boom _**"Devastation Arrow!"**

"Aw shit"

_**CRACK-KA BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

...

An idiot indeed.

Briefly, Zakara wondered if Cross would one day die; not by the feared Harbringers or their numerous other powerful enemies, but by his own 'friends' fury.

And if Gaara would be sent to the hospital due to a heart attack.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Tsk tsk tsk. When will you learn?" Zakara muttered as she gazed at Cross, who was in a full body cast. Never before had he been so stupid as to say such a thing about her crush not five minutes after. Apparently, Ciel was actually going easy on him. This time however, she wasn't. And he wasn't going to recover before AT LEAST three days. Not even with his advanced regeneration.

"Will he be alright?" Gaara asked her.

"Yup. It'll just take a while before he can even properly BLINK again."

"ohh"

...

...

"Hey, where's Ciel?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Stupid Devil and his stupid antics. He's lucky I only used ONE devastation arrow. Oh, one of these days I'm gonna..." She trailed off as she continued shooting randomly at the sands outside of the Village, setting off explosions and scaring the local animals away.

She was so engrossed into venting off her anger that she didn't notice Temari watching her, transfixed at the awesome power of the Prima Terranian.

Then,

"**MULTI-SHOT BARRAGE! DEVASTATION ARROWS!"**

"EEP!" Temari squeaked as literally hundreds of devastation arrows were let loose across the dunes, shaking the very ground she walked on with more force than an earthquake. The vibrations reached back into the Village, where many people were tripping over their own feet and buildings were shaking from their very foundations.

She stood stock-still as she watched the hunched over Ciel pant heavily, her eyes bloodshot and her knuckles white from how hard she was clutching Ingenium Procella. Finally, after a few seconds, she stood straight up, smiled, and let her bow disappear.

When she let off her anger DID SHE let off her anger.

She started walking back to Suna when she sensed Temari, her mind now not so busy. "Temari? Is there something you need from me?"

"EEP!" She tripped over her own feet and was spotted behind the sand formation she was hiding behind. Ciel smiled at her. "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I've just let off all of my anger so I won't be hurting anyone soon" Then, her voice changed into a sadistic and very scary one **"Unless of course you insult Crenike. Ku ku ku ku ku"** She laughed evilly, doing more harm than good to Temari's impression of her.

"U-umm...well..." she struggled to voice out her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"IWANTYOUTOTRAINME!" She screamed before clamping her mouth with her hands and blushing furiously.

Ciel blinked repeatedly before smiling and nodding in understanding. "Sure. I would love to. After all, I came here for the same reason as Cross; to obtain an apprentice" She admitted, and Temari's face lit up at her acceptance.

Ciel sat on an outcropping of sand. "Although...I would have to make sure you have the necessary qualifications" She muttered, raising her hand to the air as the desert breeze passed through them.

Temari's face fell. Qualifications? Was she good enough for her? She had seen how powerful Ciel was and thought of so many different that she guessed she would need to become her apprentice that her head was spinning.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit light-headed" Ciel took her out of her thoughts.

"Err...yes, I'm alright"

"If you're worried about it then don't be. You see, the energy I use isn't like you ninjas"

"Huh?"

The air around her hands suddenly coalesced, forming into an arrow. "You ninja use chakra. I use the actual power of the eight winds themselves." She finished, throwing the arrow at the ground, the resulting explosion knocking Temari off her feet and amazing her even more at the sheer power of such a technique. "I have heard of your so-called 'elemental affinities'. Though you don't know it, it can actually be so much more than just the easier manipulation of your chakra into your chosen affinity. If you ninja could fully utilize your affinities..."

The wind around her picked up, turning into a tornado with her and Temari in its eye "...You would become lords over your element" the tornado dissipated.

The stunned Temari could only nod dumbly. "I went with Cross to here because of what I had heard about ninjas from Suna having a high elemental affinity for wind. All that I need is for you to have a high enough affinity for it and I can easily take you for an apprentice." She held out her hand, palm open and gestured for her to come closer.

Gulping nervously, she slowly stepped to her and placed her own hand on Ciel's.

"Channel as much of your energy or chakra into me and we shall see." She ordered, and Temari did as she was told.

The resulting hurricane was unexpected. Immediately, before things could go out of hand, she detached her hand from Ciel's.

The Prima Terranian giggled, her face lighting up Temari's world. "I didn't expect that. A wind that could lift the sand a few feet maybe but not a twister." She put her hands behind her back. "You passed with flying colors" She told the overjoyed girl.

"However"

That word immediately made Temari stop. And the sadistic glint in Ciel's eyes didn't help either.

"Though you have the needed elemental affinity, actually wielding it is another matter. I wield it like a Prima Terranian; and, might I be so vain as to honestly answer, my kind is the absolute best besides the elementals at using it. And so, I would teach you to use it like me" Temari nodded "However..."

Temari's jaw dropped when Ciel suddenly grabbed onto a humungous solid stone boulder and threw it into the air with barely a flick of her wrist. This was followed by jumping into the air and smashing it into tiny fragments with four punches and a kick.

She landed gracefully on the ground.

"Using high-level skills and techniques takes a heavy toll on an ORDINARY _human_ body and so," Her eyes shone dangerously "I'm going to make sure you won't have an _ordinary_ human body before I teach you my art."

Temari suddenly felt as if asking to be Ciel's apprentice was the worst idea in the world.

She would take that back later when those same skills would save her life multiple times and when guys started drooling after her body, which would become comparable to a goddess' after Ciel's brutal routines.

The same could be said for Gaara.

As it turns out, Cross was an absolute slave driver, sadistic, bloodthirsty, and showed no mercy, not even to kids. He would introduce Gaara to a whole thirteen levels of pain, horror, and fear. Coupled by the mental, spiritual, and physical strain of some of Cross's exercises. Such as; telling Shukaku to try his damndest to break out as he deactivates the seal and tells Gaara to keep him in for long periods of time by his own mental prowess and power of the soul while he makes him do strenuous exercises while Cross fires at him his weapons was just one example.

Added to all that was Cross showing him the true horrors of the world beyond the horizon via a mental link. Of the 'great' wars who were NOT 'great' at all. Of the suffering of others, of the trials of life and death and so many others that would have broken grown men into insanity.

Through it all, Gaara and Temari strove on, preparing them for the changes that the arrival of Cross and the others had brought upon this world.

However, the questions remain.

Where did they come from?

Who else has arrived into this world?

What kind of changes will happen?

And so many more...

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Aw HELL YEAH! It's finally done! All twelve thousand words of it! WOO-HOO!**

**Come on guys, give me more reviews, I just LOVE EM! Yes, even the flames. I accept flames. Mainly because I let Sprite use them for his pyromaniac experiments.**

**Well, there will be a lot of OCs that I will bring into the Naruto world, but the story will still be focused on the primary characters. And the OCs will be mainly for comedy since their days of action glory has already passed back from where they came from.**

**Hope you like this chapter! And you probably like the extended chapter length. It won't be like that however. As chapter lengths will vary depending on numerous factors. But I'll try m best to make them all beyond four thousand words.**

**And about two people having the name 'Cross', sorry about that. But I just HAD to bring in those two. Avedon and Erazur know each other and are pretty much opposites. Though they're (relatively) on the same sides. There will be an irony and meaning to their names that you will probably like when the other characters are introduced.**

**Anyway, bye people! And please read and review!**

Note: I changed and added several things. One is that Cross's bones aren't black. They're a glowing bluish-white. I mismatched his subspecies with another. Another is that he can't produce venom. That was for the other species too.

For Ciel, I added that she was barefoot when moving through the sands. She will never ever wear footwear (unless forced to by her female friends), and that she didn't use an **Ultima** arrow on Cross. The **Ultima **arrow is more powerful than a devastation one so it would have done worse damage. Sorry for the mistakes guys.


	3. Chapter 3

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A figure travelled down a worn road heading towards Konohagakure.

He stood at 5'9, and wore a white trenchcoat marked with numerous red magical symbols that interconnected to form a beautiful and intimidating piece of work. On his back though, was a black symbol; a large star whose points had another smaller star attached to each of them. Each of the secondary stars had the symbol of a mythical beast; dragon, phoenix, hydra, unicorn and gryphon. Inside the main star were extremely intricate markings all centered around a cross with a slightly unsheathed katana.

With his ebony locks and similar hairstyle, he looked like a copy of a certain hybrid king. The main difference mainly the red and black markings and that his eyes were a deep lavender, not sky blue and that no weapon was visible on him.

He put his hand in his pocket and brought forth a form. In it was information depicting him as a civilian named Crimson Avedon from a village on the border of the Land of Fire who had chosen to settle down in Konoha. Not so unbelievable really, as villagers trying their luck in the big city wasn't that unusual.

He nodded in satisfaction and continued his walk.

Unbeknownst to him, a figure in white watched him from the shadows, before going back to travelling away from Konoha, a smile on his face. With Crimson Avedon in Konoha, he had a feeling that Naruto's future was certain to be bright. Challenging and dangerous yes, but more than the meager source of hope he had given to him. He just hoped that he wouldn't do TOO MUCH. Small endurance leads to a great man. But great endurance leads to the makings of heroes. Something that he hoped Naruto would become.

He never glanced back to the road as he hopped through the foliage.

It was debatable if that was a good thing or not, as he would have discovered that SHE too was going to Konoha. Never noticing her as he passed through one of the border towns and out of fire country.

Destiny help us all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hmm, all of these seem to be in order. Well, hope you settle down nicely! You may pass" The chuunins at the gate smiled at him as he walked into the city, the level of scrutiny they give to visitors so low that a mere mental tap to ignore him is sufficient to pass through undettered, never once wondering about his strange clothes.

He shook his head in disappointment. It seems that regular humans never do learn.

There was a difference between being happy and ignorance. The elemental nations were not in good terms with each other, and spies could easily get in, or worse, a war could start. They knew not of the world beyond their walls, the so-called 'histories' written in desensitized ink and giving a little more actual needed information than a flash card.

They survived merely because of their heroes, true heroes one and all, sacrificing their lives for the sake of a village that carves their image in hard stone as a form of gratitude instead of working to prevent what they had sacrificed themselves to save them from.

The idiots.

He shook his head to get rid of these thoughts. He would have to focus if he wanted to settle down properly.

He had done this many times in the past back when he was human, back in Zelathia where the existence of the Avedon line was a cause for mass hysteria, back where they were not supposed to exist other than as uninteresting gray blots in the grand mass of humans and as the shadows behind everything that watched as the world unfolded. Back when he was with his siblings; Cross and Sally Avedon.

...

He slammed his head on a concrete post, shocking several people around him.

Lazily, he sent numerous mental probes, making the already ignorant humans even more ignorant by far and making them think of him as nothing more than another everyday-life occurrence, an uninteresting blur that was undeserving of their attention.

He needed that. Thoughts that drift towards HER were bad thoughts. Naughty thoughts deserving of being called-

He slammed his head again, and again, three more times before he was sure he didn't remember anything.

Back to the business at hand.

He would have to look for a cheap but suitable dwelling, clean and fix everything up before buying supplies.

He had decided that his source of income would be as a shopkeeper of ninja supplies, with a back job as a weaponsmith; something that with his skills, was surely a profitable one.

With that said, he continued on to find a fitting home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Kyuubi groaned as it opened his eyes. All that he remembered was that man in white saying something about tenants and then nothing.

"Oh, you're awake. That's good" Cross's voice cut through the air, snapping the fox into attention.

"**You"**

"Yes. Me. Greetings Kyuubi no Kitsune" He bowed with a flourish, and Kyuubi had a though that if he had a hat, he would have held it out to the side in his bow.

"**Haven't you already greeted me once?"** The great fox asked.

The figure smiled. "Cross did, yes. But I did not"

The fox slammed its paw on the ground**. "Do not mock me whelp!"**

The man just shook his head. "I do not lie. Then again, I would have to explain everything for you to understand."

The fox narrowed its eyes. **"Understand what?"**

The figure sat down and gestured to the Kyuubi "You might want to sit down. This'll take a while, and there's nothing to do until Naruto wakes up" Reluctantly, Kyuubi complied.

"From now on, my name will simply be 'Lacroan', a different entity from Cross Azala Erazur. Now, remember when he called himself the Hybrid King?" Kyuubi nodded "Well, there's an explanation for that. You see, he was a Lacroan; an INCREDIBLY altruistic race, though by no means a stranger to fighting to the death. A fiasco concerning a certain Vampire Queen had resulted in him turning into a half-breed instead of a full vampire and the resulting transformation forced him to feed or die.

Having an incredibly high level of control despite being a 'newborn', he could feed without fear of killing the donors, most of which were done with their consent. Who ever said a vampire couldn't just ask if he could suck your blood?" Kyuubi grinned at this, having seen it happen before with varying results, most of them funny, for it anyway. "Anyway, long story short, it turned out that he absorbed the species' strengths and very rarely, their weaknesses, and having never deserted his race, he obtained blood/essence (this was due to him taking the blood of an Essence Absorber, enabling him to take the powers of those that had no blood to speak of) from so many different races and used it for his Kingdom's benefit.

There were a few side effects of this though. One of which was for him to develop personas from each new species he obtained. The result? He had a few thousand other personas in running around in HIS mindscape that he referred to simply by their species names." Kyuubi wondered how bad THAT would be. Having songs stuck in your head was bad enough, but three thousand completely different personalities in your head? Why hadn't he gone over the edge of insanity yet?

Lacroan chuckled at Kyuubi's expression. "I wonder about that myself" suddenly, Kyuubi's eyes widened **"Wait! If Cross's first species is Lacroan, then that means he IS 'Lacroan'"** The Bijuu discovered.

Lacroan nodded. "Right. Cross Azala Erazur came from another dimension, and his incredible power would have caused a major power tilt in this dimension, so by the will of Destiny, his body 'adapted', a situation where a being either gets more or less powerful depending in what dimension they were sent in."

"**Considering how powerful he is, I guess it's the latter"** The demon wasn't exactly surprised to hear about beings from other dimensions. Heck, Makai; from which it came from, could easily be considered as one.

"Exactly, and getting weaker is undoubtedly the more troublesome one" (A certain Nara suddenly sneezed violently) "As they have to stay away from the rest of this world's inhabitants until their bodies have sufficiently changed." He explained.

"**But he broke that rule"**

"Which is why it will take an even longer time for his body to adapt, probably around seven or eight years from now." Lacroan cracked his neck "Anyway, when Cross chose Naruto as his apprentice, he effectively chose him as the next Hybrid King, and just so you know, any vampire can do what he did; absorbing other species' strengths and weaknesses I mean, but not in the level that he did as even the greatest vampires can only absorb a few dozen"

"**Then how exactly did he do it?"**

Lacroan grinned, and gestured to himself "The catalyst was his Lacroan genes. Apparently, it brought the vampire species' abilities to new heights, one of them the limit of how many species he can absorb, which was only brought higher when he took in Essence Absorber. And since Naruto is his successor, he needs Lacroan genes to operate even remotely like he does. So he put his Lacroan genes in him. Unfortunately however, that would effectively put HIMSELF in him, leaving control for HIS body to a mental Battle Royale with his personas"

"**If that is so, then why are you here?"** The fox asked, finding the information to be not matching up.

"Because I'm only three fourths of his Lacroan genes. He infused me with a fourth of Avedon Human's genes, which is incredibly similar to Lacroan since they are two of the three species that are 'Children of Destiny', the Emperor race having been slaughtered by the Entity of Armageddon. Currently, his 'Cross' persona is one fourth Lacroan and three fourths Avedon, and due to inadequate Lacroan DNA, he can no longer absorb other species, though he doesn't mind, as he's already enough as it is."

"**...'Children of Destiny'? Avedon Human? These are new terms to me." **The fox begrudgingly admitted.

"Oops. Sorry, I forgot none of you know of the grand dimensional truth. Do you really want to know? Cause this will be a LOOOOOONG explanation" Kyuubi, showing typical hatred of long, drawn out and confusing lectures, shook its head. **"I'll manage"**

"Meh. Anyway, as Naruto doesn't have one hundred percent Lacroan genes, his assimilation isn't as high as Cross's once was. Those of the 'weaker' races he can absorb fully, but some will only yield to him a fraction of their power. The number of races he can assimilate will go down too, but that isn't much of a problem. On a side note, the way Cross transferred me here and the one fourth Avedon HUMAN in me made sure that Naruto's main species will slowly be changed from a Jinchuuriki human into three fourths Lacroan and one fourth Avedon, a definite improvement wherever you look at it, although I wont disappear from his mind."

Nodding at the fact that Kyuubi seemed able to keep up, he continued. "Anyway, if you're wondering when he'll get Vampire since he needs vampiric genes to properly assimilate most of the species, he'll get that later. Cross put in two others with me" Noticing Kyuubi looking around in search of said others, he added; "Don't bother looking for them. Until they consider Naruto worthy of using them, they'll only be visible as indistinguishable shadowy blurs, and you can't even hear anything they say nor smell, or touch them. Though they can interact with each other" He told the Bijuu.

"**Why would he put those other two in here and not just include Vampire after you? Doesn't he need the vampire line to assimilate those two?" **

"Normally, that would be so, but you should know that each added species influences him; though they would affect him less and less the farther they get from the fist assimilation or the stronger his personality is. As a child, Naruto is easily susceptible to personality changes as he's in the development stage, and Vampire's arrogant and less-than-altruistic attitude isn't healthy for him, so Cross would probably wait until Naruto has established a solid foundation of his character. As for the two that he put in here, well, they're a bit different than others. I have to keep them a secret so I'll just tell you that one is a being that sprouts from the raw material of a perfect human body; the Avedon genes a perfect example of it and the other...well, that I REALLY can't tell" He admitted the last part.

Kyuubi growled but didn't ask for more. Then, it noticed something unusual about Lacroan. Was it him, or were those...whisker marks?! And why were there blond streaks in his hair? Wasn't Cross's hair all black?

Lacroan studied Kyuubi's expression, before coming to a conclusion. "Ahh, so it's started huh?" He traced his cheek, and nodded in understanding when he felt slight deep lines on them. "Well, you should understand that I'm now officially part of Naruto. So I'm changing from what Cross looked like as a Lacroan, and what Naruto would look like as one" He explained and Kyuubi growled in acceptance.

Lacroan looked up as he felt Naruto's mind start moving. "Speaking of Naruto, it looks like he's waking up" He noted.

"**Hmph. Well I'm not explaining all that to him. You do it" **The grumpy fox muttered before turning back to the cage and going deeper into it, its form disappearing into the darkness.

Lacroan chuckled. "Well, can't argue with that. I was planning on giving it the job myself, but I could do it more effectively." He looked up again as his features' change accelerated. "Come on kid, wake up so we can get everything started" He muttered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Oww...what happened?" Naruto groaned out as he sat up from his futon. He remembered everything, of the man in white who revealed to him the truth and of Kyuubi, and the fact that he going to be trained...but nothing was different!

He looked around, trying to spot Cross. Finding no trace of him, he sniffled. It must have been a dream. For something like that to actually happen was impossible!

'_Not so Child'_ A voice was suddenly heard.

His head snapped up, turning everywhichway to find the direction the voice was from. "H-hello? Where are you?"

He heard a chuckle. _'Think of your mind child, and you will see me.'_ The voice told him.

Normally, Naruto would have just continued searching for the source of the voice, but for some reason, it reminded him of someone, and he felt that he could trust it. He nodded and settled his thoughts on his mind, on the sewers, on the room that Kyuubi was-

**Drip drip drip**

He snapped into attention, and grinned when he found himself back in his mindscape.

"Good. Good. I had a feeling you would be able to do it." The voice sounded behind him. He turned around and his jaw fell open in shock when he saw him.

He recognized him, he certainly did. But how could he not? Everyday, he saw his face carved into the mountain, everyday he saw his face in numerous pictures in the village, everyday he wished to be like him; the greatest ninja and hero Konoha had ever produced: The Yondaime Hokage.

"Yo-Yondaime?" He breathed, afraid this moment would pass.

The Yondaime's brow furrowed when he heard this, before widening in realization and he started "Oh dear, I didn't think you would resemble him THAT much when you would grow older." He managed to make out between each laugh.

"Huh?"

The man grinned and held out his hand for Naruto to shake. "I'm not Yondaime Naruto. I'm Lacroan, one of the few things that Cross gave to you before he left"

Naruto scrunched his eyes in confusion but reluctantly took the hand. Before he could do anything, however, his mind was assaulted with thoughts. He saw it, how Lacroan first looked exactly like Cross, how he had explained everything to Kyuubi, which in turn, explained everything to Naruto as he listened to the conversation, and finally, when Kyuubi noticed the changes with Lacroan before everything returned him to being in front of him and clutching his hand.

Lacroan smiled. "Understand now?" Naruto nodded feverishly.

"Good. Now, since you understand everything, I'll get to business; training you" Naruto grinned at this but Lacroan suddenly affixed him with a firm stare, driving him to the ground.

"Before we commence with it Naruto, I have to make sure you understand exactly what this means. Cross has chosen you as his successor, thereby making you the next in line as the Hybrid King. You will receive great power, and the challenges and training will be intense, but before that, you must understand, if you accept all that, you WILL NO LONGER BE HUMAN" He finished gravely at the end, and Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

"As Hybrid King, you are the bridge to all races, be they good or bad. You will become many of the things that only nightmares may bring, and some not even the most insane person can think of. I know of how you have been accused of being a 'demon' Naruto, and the prospect of partly becoming exactly that must be hard for you, but it is either that, or nothing. The Hybrid King is the one that united under one banner every race back in Zelathia, so you must accept even the 'evil' races. I will not take it against you if you do not accept. It is understandable, and we will disappear from your life, never to bother you again. But just so you know, not all that is dark is evil and not all that is holy is good, hence why darkness has fought for the greater good and why angels fall from grace. Take that piece of advice and choose wisely."

Naruto gulped, and his forehead and hands started sweating; a strange sensation considering he's in his mind, as the full weight of his choice settled upon him. What was he to do? All his life, he wanted the insults of 'demon' and 'fox brat' to stop, and to be treated as a human being!

But then, came a foreign realization. What exactly was a human being? And what exactly was a 'demon'?

Most and nearly all humans treated him like trash, no; they treated him worse than trash. They spit, trample, and beat him up, insult him, and make his life a living hell. And yet, Cross, whom he now knew as a hybrid of so many different species, his persona affected by thousands upon thousands of them was kinder to him than anyone had ever been.

What did humans know about demons? They treated ALL demons as evil and probably never gave them a chance, and yet, Lacroan was implying that not all demons were bad. And angels, they had fallen from grace many times apparently.

No, being a human wasn't really what it seemed. And he didn't want Cross-oniisan or Lacroan to disappear either.

And as a Hybrid King, he would see everything from the eyes of both sides, of who truly was in the wrong and who was in the right. He would choose his friends, not by race, but by their hearts, something that would prove easier when he becomes a Hybrid King.

The choice was made.

Lacroan nodded in appreciation as he watched Naruto's face twist into numerous expressions as revelations became known to him.

Finally, his face hardened into determination and understanding. "I accept"

He smiled at the answer. Cross chose a fine successor indeed. "And you made the right choice. I have all of Cross's memory, and I have seen sights beyond your current level of imagination. The supposed King of the deepest pits of Hell fighting side-by-side against the most high herself against once grand beings turned into monstrosities being one of them. The sides between black and white are rarely visible, most of the time gray. Only the Hybrid King can truly and UTTERLY understand everything, as he is made up of pretty much everyone's race."

Unbeknownst to Naruto (but probably known to Lacroan) Kyuubi smiled from the darkness. This kit had earned a tiny bit of respect by that.

Naruto beamed at him before a thought crossed his mind. "Wait a second, why do you look so much like the Yondaime?"

He tried to start a lie, but Naruto just glared at him.

He didn't believe it one bit. "Lacroan-baka, I've seen too much to consider it a coincidence."

"Heh, it's either you're quite perceptive for your age and race or your Lacroan and Avedon genes are acting in. I suspect the latter" He muttered before admitting the truth "I look like how you would look like if you were a Lacroan and were at your prime age right? Well, a Lacroan's prime age looks like how he would look like as a teenager if he were a human. Apparently you would look quite a lot like your father; the Yondaime, who still looks like he's in his teens."

Naruto's eyes bulged out comically. Sure, he had an inkling that that was the answer, but he expected it to be a wilder, more unbelievable one considering what had been happening to him in the past several hours. "WHAT?! You mean to tell me that that BAKA-Hokage put the Kyuubi IN HIS OWN SON?!" He screamed "Didn't he think about how the village would treat me?! Or of what they would think when they discover that I have the Kyuubi in me?! Heck, why did they even tell everyone about the Kyuubi in the first place?!"

Lacroan already knew the answer to that himself. The saying; 'there are two things that are infinite; Human Stupidity, and the Universe, and I'm not so sure about the latter' was pretty much it.

"Think of it carefully Naruto. Minato trusted in his village very much, he expected them to be able to understand the difference between the prisoner and the jailor, that, and the fact that he would have been so guilt-ridden at the thought of asking a villager to sacrifice something he couldn't give up himself. As for the telling everyone about the Kyuubi part, I think the Sandaime was smoking something EXTRA hard that day." He pointed out.

"Then why didn't they tell me I'm the Yondaime's son?!"

Lacroan continued without preamble. "Well, the bloody greedy idiots that this place calls The Council probably didn't care about the fact that you're the Yondaime's son and made the excuse that telling you that you're his son would make you shout the fact out and send ninjas from other nations after you just so that they could steal the Yondaime's considerable fortune when they could just guard you with ninjas 24/7, after all, they owe him AT LEAST that much. Either that, or only the Sandaime and those REALLY close to the Yondaime knew about you being his son and the Sandaime was too stupid or paranoid or was still smoking what he was smoking when he told everyone about the Kyuubi and thought that you would be in grave danger if everyone knew you were his son or the budget cuts were so great that they didn't have enough ninjas to properly guard you so he settled with whatever stupid thing he did. Honestly, I think he smokes too much" He finished.

Naruto's eye twitched and he glared at Lacroan.

Lacroan sighed, sitting down so that his head was level to Lacroans. "Naruto, would you blame a civilian for being unable to cast a successful Kage-Rank technique?"

Naruto frowned at him. "Of course not! Why would I do that! The civilian obviously isn't at fault!"

Lacroan stood up. "Then the humans aren't truly at fault. For that is their nature"

"What?! I don't get it!" He shouted, pointedly holding his gaze on Lacroan.

The persona heaved another sigh. Explaining the intricacies of the human race to a child was damn near impossible. And there were more important matters to attend to.

He stared at Naruto seriously, his grave expression shutting down any outbursts he may have said. "Naruto, humans (save Avedons) are, and have always been a foolhardy race. A so-called 'good' race that regularly wages war with each other, shuns and kills anything that they find different or better than them. It is in their nature. Considering what humans tend to naturally be, your father and the Sandaime...are actually admirable examples of humans. Your father had the weight of an entire village on his arms and to him; with his trust in his village, the village would honor his wishes and treat you like a hero. It was not his fault the villagers didn't live up to his expectations. The Sandaime, was foolish yes, but his thoughts were for your well-being. He honestly thought he was doing you good, and in truth, considering Iwa's grudge against your father, it wasn't a ridiculous possibility. Foolishness is not a cause for blame. And you should know that he could very well have done even worse than you could think"

He stated it as a fact, and despite Naruto wishing to contradict him, he had a gut feeling that it was true, and it did the job, and Naruto calmed down.

"It is true that you have every right to inflict judgement upon them, but I request this of you Naruto; leave it as that. You are a new being now. Whatever transgressions that have happened to you before your change must be left in the past and not affect your new life. I do not ask you to forget or to forgive; though that would greatly help, but to merely live on as someone new, without the demons of your past haunting you." He noticed Naruto's look and cut in before he could start "And before you ask, no, whatever happens to you AFTER your change will be dealt with. The past will be left alone but whatever happens in the present or the future will NOT be tolerated" He stated evenly, a hidden threat to anyone that would trouble Naruto hanging in the air.

That proclamation gave Naruto a measure of comfort, and he gave in to Lacroan's request. "Oh alright. But how exactly are you gonna train me?"

Lacroan gave it a though. "Well, we'll need a lot of things. And considering how pretty much everyone in this village treats you, we're going to have to confront the Sandaime to get it done" he studied Naruto's form "AFTER you get something to eat. You're skin and bones kid" He noted, and mentally, he was resisting the urge to take over Naruto's body and go use a **Field of Oblivion **move on the villagers, something that was possible with his level of control and Kyuubi's chakra.

Naruto frowned at this. "What can I do? Back when I was still in the orphanage, the people there barely let me eat, and what they DID let me eat were always spoiled or poisoned. And when Jiji gave me my own apartment, people won't let me buy things from them or only sells me things triple the price for spoiled and poisoned goods."

Lacroan's hand twitched. Can humans EVER let go of their barbaric tendencies? It was probably too much too ask.

Though he knew of, and had experienced worse conditions himself, it didn't lessen his frustration and anger. Honestly, back in Zelathia, Cross and the others would have been HAPPY to leave the humans to die, but the fact that they would be leaving a few thousand truly benevolent humans out of six billion dead was considered too much of a loss. It was the ONLY reason why they had saved everyone there.

He sighed deeply. "We have so much to work to do before we can get everything started. But first thing's first. If you have any questions, ask them now, and I'll answer truthfully to the best of my ability. I've seen too many misunderstandings because of misinformation before to let I happen again."

"Well...if the Yondaime's my father, then who's my mother?"

"Now that I don't know. It is said that the Yondaime didn't have a wife, but you're obviously his biological son so that means it was kept secret. I am pretty sure the Sandaime knows about her, whoever she is." He informed him, and Naruto frowned.

"That's pretty much all of it...but what did you mean by the grand dimensional truth a while ago?"

Lacroan smiled. "If you want to know about it, then you should know that it will take a LOOOOOONG while before we're done, probably a few hours. Think you can make it?"

"Aw darn. I'd probably be too hungry to move by then, I'll pass"

Lacroan wagged his finger at him. "Nuh-uh. Just so you know, your mind doesn't rest at all, and it moves a HELL lot faster than your body. So unless you're in control of your body in the outside world, a few hours here is barely ten minutes outside."

Naruto nodded dumbly, understanding it.

Lacroan's grin intensified. "And that means we have a LOT of time to explain it to you!" All of Cross's personas had strange personality quirks. Apparently, Lacroan liked explaining stuff like a teacher.

Despite the impending sense of doom he was feeling, Naruto nodded.

Oh, the idiot.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto's head spun from the constant flow of information it had been receiving.

Apparently, there were three TRULY most powerful beings, or entities. Death, Armageddon, and Destiny.

They were sentient, and were the Lords of Existence...well, Destiny was. Death just killed people for a job and Armageddon rent dimensions apart.

Anyway, Destiny was the most powerful, for his powers were simply to make ANYTHING simply _happen_. Anything could happen with his power, and he meant ANYTHING.

Destiny was the reason the Multidimensional Universe (the combination of EVERYTHING as in EVERYTHING) was created (he was bored, and the TV wasn't invented yet, mainly because nothing existed to invent it).

He simply made it _happen_.

Anyway, Destiny made the Multidimensional Universe (which many mistakenly name as the Multiverse[the Multiverse is just the numerous universes and alternate universes of a dimension{a dimension is what people mistakenly name as 'universe', for example, the dimension of the elemental nations has a Multiverse consisting of alternate universes of it}] ) come into existence and pretty much just watched what happened next.

Overtime, as Destiny studied the worlds and its thoughts, he became interested by the imagination of its numerous inhabitants, so every now and then, whenever he saw a good idea for a new dimension, he used his powers to make its creation happen. As a dimension can sustain itself and alternate universes of a dimension are created from choices that affect the world and branch out when there are at least two choices that would end in different results, Destiny had an infinite source of entertainment.

The 'Children of Destiny' were beings that Destiny SPECIFICALLY created. The Lacroans, the Avedons, and the Emperor race. (The Children of Destiny knew of the grand truth)

The Lacroans were born of his thoughts of creating a 'perfect' race, as Lacroans could easily be considered as such, being incredibly altruistic and yet willing to fight and kill if there is no other choice along with numerous other traits that Naruto had a hard time remembering. One of which was a literal 'moral compass' and the strange ability to know what is best to do in a situation.

The Avedons weren't a race per say, but more of a family line of humans. They were human, very much so, but they were at the ABSOLUTE peak of human ability, with each and every member of their family a born genius beyond any known save for the Lacroans and specialized in whatever family branch, sub-branch, or division they were in. **(1)**

The Emperor race was created to be the inheritors of his power. Their power was simply to control fate exactly like Destiny, which was to make things _happen_. Unfortunately, for them, they needed a least a miniscule percentage of a chance for it to happen to make it happen, while Destiny could make ANYTHING happen even if there was an absolute zero percent chance of it happening.

Anyway, the sayings about you making your own destiny was mostly true, as Destiny normally just watched what happened without interfering, and when he did, if you went against him hard enough, and he liked it, he tended to let it end in your favor.

Armageddon was just an entity that liked destroying stuff, which turned into his downfall when he annihilated the Emperor race. Since Armageddon was one of the three prime entities, the chances of stopping him was zero, and with the big three having made a pact not to interfere with each other DIRECTLY or INTENTIONALLY, the Emperor race was killed completely.

Destiny couldn't interfere since it was an accident. Armageddon didn't know about his creations, and so, thought that the Emperor race was just another all-powerful race and destroyed them. But that didn't mean Destiny didn't keep a grudge.

He made it so that the Spell-Lords **(2)** found a tome that could defeat Armageddon and 'moved' their dimension.

He didn't improve the chances of Armageddon meeting them DIRECTLY. He JUST 'moved' their dimension which had the UNINTENTIONAL side-effect of improving the chance of Armageddon meeting them.

Which was exactly what happened.

The Spell-Lords separated Armageddon from his body. So now, there was only the Body of Armageddon (which was an unresponsive but powerful lump of existence) and the Soul of Armageddon, which had the power to infuse itself into other beings and take over if their willpower was lower than it (which was pretty much everytime).

Anyway, Destiny made it so that the 'Will of Infinity' was blessed into a certain Thief Sub-branch Avedon and watched as Armageddon stupidly possessed him when he became a Bloodborn Devil.

Having the 'Will of Infinity', the Avedon won over Armageddon with ease, and now, Armageddon was trapped inside his body with his powers at his bidding.

Death was a lazy bum, and since he only wanted to watch TV after it was invented, he thought of a way for someone to continue his work while he lazed around.

He created the visage of the grim reaper. Now, the thing that Death really needed was someone who could hear the 'Song of Death'; the most beautiful song in existence that was heard whenever a sentient being died.

Destiny had foreseen this by making the zero possibility of him knowing what Death would do _happen_. So before they made the pact, he went into the creation of 'hearers'; a human being that could hear the song of death. It was a one in a billion chance. And he knew by common sense that they would most probably become killers due to the addiction of hearing the song.

Anyway, Death took this chance, and a hearer that he chose as 'deserving' would be given the choice to be his apprentice. If they agreed, they would be trained and would work for at least a thousand years and could go on for as long as they wanted to (no Grim Reaper had ever stopped before at least being Reaper for five thousand years, it was THAT fun).

However, due to blessing his power over to beings that were not entities, Death Energy (his unique energy) became available as some alternate universes and other dimensions were created.

Death himself was still the most powerful user though, and could easily take the powers away from all of its users whenever he wanted to, which was never, as he rather liked watching TV with Destiny.

Needless to say, his head was going to explode from this. There was only so much knowledge a five-year-old can take, and he was surprised he remembered it all.

"AHH! That's enough Lacroan!" He screamed as Lacroan went into facts about Lacroans.

"Aww, but I'm getting into the facts about the Elemental Lords." He whined.

"Dammit! Even if I HAVE understood everything, my head hurts! Stop it now!" He yelled.

"Wait, you understood everything?"

"Yes! But my head is bursting with information!"

Lacroan smiled at him. If he understood all that then that meant that his Lacroan genes were starting with his mind. That was good. Well, the explanations could be done sometime later. "Oh alright, now let's wake up and start the day Naruto" He conceded.

"YATTA!...wait, how do I wake up?"

Lacroan chuckled. "Easy, channel your mental energies and think of the outside world!"

Naruto nodded and did as he was told. He was surprised to suddenly find himself back in his apartment.

He stood up. "So, what happens now?" He said aloud.

'_Please, you just need to think about me and think about what you want to say. Talking aloud to a seemingly imaginary friend will make not make people think better of you'_

'_Oops. Sorry'_ He apologized.

'_No need to apologize. Anyway, we need to go to the Sandaime. I believe we need to have a chat with him first, but I want you to get the box he left you'_

'_B-box?'_ Naruto looked around and stared in shock when he spotted the said object.

'_I'll explain what it's for later, but you must NEVER let it out of your sight so keep with you ALWAYS. Starting now.'_

'_Hai'_ Naruto agreed, picking it up and putting it in his pocket.

He headed straight for the Hokage Tower after eating some cup ramen.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hiruzen Sarutobi groaned in frustration as he battled furiously the worst enemy of all: paperwork.

The never-ending pile seemed to mock him, as whenever he finished one pile, the unfinished ones seemed to have multiplied.

Honestly, how did Minato manage to finish it all so quickly?!

Damn him for not sharing his secret before his death!

Suddenly, he heard a ruckus outside.

"Get out of here demon brat! The Hokage doesn't want to see you!" A crash "H-hey, get back here!" The door was opened when Naruto slammed into it, opening it.

"What is the meaning of this?" The old veteran asked the chuunin guarding the door.

"Th-the d-demon tried to get in Hokage-sama!" He answered, and by the narrowing of Sarutobi's eyes, he was in deep shit.

"ANBU, detain him, and from now on for five years, you shall only be performing D-rank missions" He ordered, and the ANBU appeared and grabbed the protesting chuunin.

When the noise of the screaming chuunin was gone, the Hokage sighed deeply. "When will they ever learn?" He turned to Naruto "Are you alright Naruto?"

"Y-yeah, hokage-jiji" He confirmed to the old man's relief.

'_What do I do next?'_ Naruto asked Lacroan mentally.

The persona narrowed its eyes, though Naruto couldn't see it. _'Not you. Me. I want to have a chat with this man. Please trust me with this Naruto. Lend me control of your body until I choose to give it back to you'_ He pleaded, and Naruto could only give a mental nod when he heard his tone.

Naruto's body shook suddenly, worrying the Hokage. "N-Naruto?" He reached out to him, before Naruto's hand snapped out and grabbed his outstretched hand.

"Not Naruto. This is his body yes, but Naruto isn't the one in control. Now, I'd rather we meet somewhere else" He muttered as he tapped the old Hokage's forehead with his finger and he suddenly found himself falling...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He landed on his feet with a splash, studying his surroundings. _'A sewer?'_ He thought _'How did I get here?'_

A shadowy blur at the edge of his vision made him tense, and he took off his Hokage robes to reveal his armor as he turned on the figure.

He could barely make out its shape, all that he could manage to know was that it was vaguely humanoid. It shrugged at him; something he could barely make out, before walking away silently. He could see its feet affecting the low waters but there was no sound from its steps as it disappeared.

"Sets your mind on edge doesn't it? Not being able to understand an unknown factor?" A voice called out to him, and his eyes widened when he shifted to see someone who looked like a clone of a certain dead blonde Hokage. "M-Minato?" He called out before the man rolled his eyes and chuckled in amusement.

"Jeez, do I really look like him that much?" He asked to no one in particular. "Nope. I'm not the Yondaime, Hiruzen Sarutobi. I'm Lacroan, and we're here to talk" He answered, bowing low with a flourish, and the old Hokage couldn't help but notice the differences now that he had a closer look.

Whoever this 'Lacroan' was, he definitely looked a lot like the late genius, but he noted that his hair was a tad paler than Minato's, more a platinum blonde than golden yellow. His eyes were a lighter blue color, and had an ethereal glow to them that made them stand out in the dark environment along with his pale skin.

Other than those and his slightly different clothes, he wasn't surprised he mistook him for Minato. But a ninja had to be careful at all times. It was suspicious enough as it was to suddenly see this man.

"You're probably wondering what happened when Naruto touched you" Lacroan surmised, and Hiruzen nodded, wary of the blonde enigma.

"Naruto let me take control of his body for a while, the duration of which where I took in your consciousness and sent it to his mind to converse more easily with you. That is where we currently are" He explained and Hiruzen looked around, contemplating whether to believe him or not.

"Hard to believe this is his mindscape isn't it? Well, it is. And it's due to the treatment of the villagers that it's like this. The mind reflects your experiences after all, and the fact that its connected to a seal that is SUPPOSED to be a dreary prison for its inhabitant doesn't help. As for our talk, since he's going to be the subject of our conversation, I believe he has a right to be here. Naruto, you may come out now" Lacroan called out, and Hiruzen saw Naruto step out of the shadows and stand beside Lacroan.

"Hello Ojii-san" Naruto greeted him.

"Naruto! Who is this man?" He asked him.

"You mean Lacroan? He's a friend of mine, so you can trust him." He assured the aged ninja.

The persona nodded. "Good, now that introductions are finished, I think it's time we have a talk..." He started...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Hokage was reeling from the information after Lacroan had gone into a summary of Naruto's new situation (but withheld the information concerning the Grand Truth. That was something for another day)

The aged ninja had been stunned by this; Naruto was now barely one-fourth human, and it would become less and less as time went on.

He had wanted to object against it but when he noticed how Naruto accepted it and how happy he had become in such a short time, he had lost the heart to say anything about it; and even his logical side had to agree: the benefits outmatched the disadvantages.

He was shocked by how Naruto viewed humans; almost at the level as mindless animals. But considering how the majority of the species tended to act, it was understandable. It was indeed humbling to see yourself in the eyes of another sentient species.

The fact that he didn't even know about Naruto's misfortunes and getting attacked nearly everyday for so long pulled at his heartstrings. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, Naruto would have died in a year; the regeneration and endurance granted to him enabling him to live on the paltry food and heal from his numerous injuries as he was always kicked out of the hospital whenever he tried getting in. Even more when he found out that Naruto now knew of Kyuubi and his parentage and how he had been lying to him for so many times to hide it.

He had asked for forgiveness from the boy at his shortcomings but Naruto had waved him off. Stating it was not his fault and that he could have done worse if he had reacted in typical human fashion. He was even grateful to him for all the help he had done. As compared to everyone that had helped him, whatever meager assistance that the Hokage had managed to give to him had gone a long way, also accepting the Yondaime's sealing of the Kyuubi in him as an understandable and logical choice brought upon by the duties he had to an entire population, and his assumption of the village's supposed reaction to him a reasonable prediction. He had expected the village to be more humane, but sadly, human stupidity and foolishness knows no bounds. The Yondaime was not at fault for not expecting it. He WAS just a human after all.

Then, Naruto had asked about his mother. With a heavy heart, the Sandaime had told him of her name; Kushina Uzumaki, and had affirmed that she had truly died in childbirth.

Naruto was saddened by this, but accepted it as a part of life, and had cheered up a bit when the Sandaime told him that she had truly loved him.

After all was said and done, Lacroan asked for his help in securing Naruto's safety and training, to which he was all too happy to oblige.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Thanks a lot Ojii-san!" Naruto shouted, back in the real world.

The Sandaime had secured him another house in the village, away from his previous one after Lacroan had told him off the run-down state of the dwelling. The Hokage had suggested the Namikaze estate but Lacroan found it to be a stupid idea. The mere suggestion of the 'demon brat' living in their hero's home would put the village in an uproar. Besides, he had assured him that he had it covered and all he needed as a small apartment. Though he had asked for the family scrolls, which would assist Naruto in his training. Something which the old man thankfully agreed to and had given him the key along with instructions for the blood seals.

Lacroan had also requested for a raise in Naruto's allowance and a withdrawal of a certain amount of money to start off in Naruto's new life. He wasn't too surprised to see that the Namikaze fortune was a several hundred thousand yen less than what it was supposed to be. Hiruzen had a feeling that whoever had stolen from Naruto's inheritance was in for a world of pain when Lacroan finds out who did it.

For now, this was all that he needed, and he walked out of the room with a smile.

The Sandaime smiled, happy for Naruto, before going back to his most hated enemy. He growled at the white horror. Was it him, or had they multiplied?

"Ah! One day, one day I tell you, I WILL defeat you!" He promised to the offending writing.

Back outside, Naruto was conversing with Lacroan.

'_Do you think we should tell him the solution to his problems?' _Naruto asked.

Lacroan shook his head no. _'Nah, let's leave it for now and use it as collateral later.'_ He suggested, and Naruto agreed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson grinned as the transaction from the owner to him was completed. He had managed to buy a small ordinary two-story apartment in the middle of the village. The old man who had owned it was moving out of the village, and he had been waiting for someone to buy the house.

All the better for him as he couldn't afford to rent a house and have the landlord barging in on unexpected times. Magic and weapons making could not afford interruptions if he wished for them to be perfect.

He smiled and bowed low to the old man, before helping him climb onto the small cart he had and ride off with his donkey.

He went in the house and nodded in satisfaction. There was slightly more space than he needed. Aw well, all the better for him.

With that thought in mind, he went to work.

In a few hours, he was done cleaning up the house and a ninja supply store that seemingly had everything you basically needed would be open to the public.

The only difference between him and the other supply stores was that he had EVERYTHING you could possibly need and his were a lot cheaper, which wasn't quite enough to actually make you the favorite place to go. So that wasn't where the majority of his profit would come. What he would be selling in his day job would simply be perfectly-made basic supplies, but of course, basic supplies, no matter how perfectly made, we're still basic supplies made from basic materials. So his kunais probably wouldn't stand up to an impact from Crenike's Serathril.

That was why his other job would be as a weaponsmith that made enchanted items. Like throwing weapons that would return to the owner with a thought, blades that could cut through rocks like putty, and other numerous items.

Of course, he wouldn't just announce that publicly to the black market. He had set up his shop in such a way that someone with enough observational skills and curiosity would notice something strange and ask about it, or possibly discover it's true purpose altogether.

Either way, he would bide his time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto was happy.

Ever since he had met Cross, things had been looking up for him. Even more so after his meeting with the Hokage.

After Naruto had walked out of the tower, Lacroan had told him to stay in his old house for a while and take the stuff from the Namikaze estate and go to his new house (which was thankfully already furnished) in the cover of night to avoid being seen by the villagers. He had lived like it for five years so waiting for a day wasn't hard.

On the next day; after he had gotten the scrolls and woken up in the new house, Lacroan had once again asked permission to use his body, something to which he agreed completely to, trusting his new 'tenant'.

Right now, Lacroan was holding the small box Cross had left for him.

He tapped the stone with his finger and it started glowing, before turning into several bursts of light that collected on the floor. As the light dimmed, they turned out to be objects.

The first was a magnificent sheathed broadsword, with an absurd length of five feet and four inches long **(3)**.

The second was a featureless smooth circular bracelet made out of a not-so-plain bluish crystal with green lines that looked like nerves.

The third was a fingerless brown glove, with a gray metal bracelet covered in runes melded to the cuff and gray hexagonal blocks to the finger. The last features of the glove were the two 2 ½ inch gems embedded to the palm at the back of the glove. The one on the palm pulsed with a dark aurora while the one at the back of his hand shone in an eerie holy light.

The fourth was a pair of shining greaves made out of a silvery metal studded with numerous gems of various shapes and sizes. If one were to study it closely, they would notice a faint flow like an aurora borealis moving throughout the greaves.

The last was a belt. It was a strange one, composed of numerous ½ centimeter thick rectangular engraved pieces of a bland white metal connected to each other by an unknown force, since no chains or locks were visible. On the frontmost part of it was a small silver stone imbedded into it.

Lacroan grinned as he let Naruto take control again. It seemed that Cross had provided Naruto with EVERYTHING he might need.

Then, the gem on the hilt of the sword formed an eye (think of the Eye of Sauron, only the slitted pupil is yellow and the sclera is dark blue).

As if that wasn't enough, the sword floated into the air and the crystalline bracelet expanded and turned into a vague humanoid form resembling a wooden featureless puppet with yellow glowing eyes (think Mokujin from Tekken, only without the nose and he actually has toes and fingers).

And to top it off, the sword SPOKE.

"Alright, where the hell did Cross leave us THIS time?"The sword asked.

Naruto had only one thing to say.

"_**NANI?!"**_

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

**Explanations:**

**(1) An example of the Avedons' prowess would be: **

**Want a GOD killed? Ask for one from the assassin branch.**

**Want to annihilate the invincible Golden Army (WITHOUT destroying the crown to power them down)? Hire a couple of guys from the Crusader branch. (they are also hired as generals for living armies of mass destruction)**

**Want to blow up a few hundred thousand galaxies? Pay for one from the Demolition branch!**

**(2) Spell-Lords are practitioners of magic so powerful that they have become immortal (the ageless one, not the invulnerable one) due to the amount of magic in them; a testament of their power. They can come from any race, from any world, from any dimension, they all share a single fact: They are DAMN powerful. And they can go to other dimensions without being affected by the 'adapting' process. Meaning that they are ALWAYS at the level of power they have achieved, never getting weaker. **

**On a side note, all Spell-Lords know each other, and they each have a ranking on who is most powerful. A certain Avedon who has been slamming his head on a concrete post several times is THE most powerful of them all. *hint hint***

**(3) There is a difference between a broadsword and a longsword. Typical longswords are relatively thin. When knights in full-armor fought, they used the marginally thicker broadswords as the longsword tended to be unable to cut through the armor while the broadswords could and left the enemy knight dizzy from the heavy hit caused by the heavy hit of the thick broadsword. The blade here is a long broadsword. Not a longsword.**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Yes! FINALLY I finished the chapter!**

**Sorry for the long wait guys, but I had a bit of trouble writing some scenes.**

**Anyway, Crimson Avedon hasn't been getting much attention right now, but I had to focus on Naruto first.**

**As for Hinata's master, I'm sorry to say that she probably won't be there in the next chapter. I found out a LOT of flaws in my plan and I had to rearrange the time to make it fit. But she'll appear, trust me on that.**

**On a side note, I'm wondering if I should turn this into a Team 7 bashing fic like a lot of others where Naruto will turn out to be awesome. If you say yes, then Sasuke will get his little gay ass kicked by a sentient sword and probably die, Sakura will end up an utter failure and Kakashi will LITERALLY get his ass kicked by a certain awesome thief.**

**If I turn this into a fic where Sasuke isn't so much of a douche bag, Sakura isn't a complete and utter ditz, and Kakashi isn't completely an Uchiha-ass-kisser, then we'll probably have Sasuke ending up in a relationship with a not-so-fangirlish Sakura, while Kakashi will be introduced into a new piece of writing on a level of porn that puts 'Icha Icha' to shame.**

**Well, review guys and tell me what you think! Cause I wanna make sure that this fic is something you'll like! **

**Well, bye folks! See ya next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Well, I just have to say, many people said last chapter was boring. Yeah, I know. It is. But you'll need to read it all to make sure you won't get lost in this story as there are many things I will be putting in the Naruto world that you probably won't understand without.**

**On a side note, thanks to a random reader who pointed out a mistake in the last last chapter and the last chapter. **

**Cross's bone was slightly glowing and bluish-white. Not black. Black bone is for another kind of devil.**

**Also, I was implying that Crimson tended to lay low back in his life and he was going to do the same now but being the talk-of-the-town due to him flaunting his skills was counter-productive to it. So I changed it. Now, he's publicly a simple shopkeeper of a simple ninja supplies shop but to a select few who know where to look can buy the enchanted weapons from him. He only makes enchanted weapons though. No special armor but the normal ones. **

**I changed that bit in the last chapter.**

**Thank you dude!**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"_**NANI?!"**_ Naruto screamed, catching the sword and the crystalline humanoid's attention.

"...well damn, the guy actually did it."The sword muttered before turning to the brown leather glove. "Hey Sal! Wake up Dan's ugly mug and tell him I won the bet! Cross acted out before his time was up! Woo-hoo!"The sword cheered as the glove started twitching.

Surprisingly; or not surprisingly depending on your views, the gems on the glove spoke.

"**AW DAMN! Remind me again why I even agreed to betting against ya?" **The black gem asked the sword.

"Cause you're an idiot. That's what!"It answered, and Naruto could practically see the black gem crossing its arms and pouting in defiance.

Then, he heard a female voice chuckling, and looked at the white gem, whose light blinked in tandem to the voice's laughter. _"I told you not to engage in gambling. Nothing good comes of it Dan." _The voice chided, and the three resumed talking.

By now, Naruto was REALLY freaked out. I mean, come on! Who would have expected four sentient objects to suddenly appear and start arguing (at least three are, the Mokujin-esque is just standing there and staring REALLY creepily at him...[think of the ANBU Yamato, only ten times worse]) in your house?

'_Hahahahaha. As hard as it is to believe, during the times of war back in Zelathia, they would have expected stranger things' _Lacroan told him.

'_Oh yeah? Like what?'_

'_Like the sudden appearance of hand-puppets that could very well kick the Sandaime's ass back in his prime.'_

'_Ohh...'_ Was all Naruto could say, the mental image freaking him out.

"Hey Kid"The sword's voice broke him out of his reverie, and he faced in the direction of the voice. "Y-yes?"

Somehow, he had a feeling the sword was smiling. "Aah. You're that kid he had been looking at for several months already. And if my sources are correct, you're his chosen successor aren't you?" It asked.

"H-hai"

He felt the grin widen as the sword started barking with laughter. "Knew it. I just knew it. Well kid, to get greetings short, I'm Trilithon. The ugly lump of coal is Damnation-" **"HEY!"** "-And the beautiful white jewel is Salvation." For some strange reason, Naruto felt as if the white gem was blushing. HOW a _stone_ could blush was beyond him though. "The living crystal statue that is seemingly looking into your soul is Chryxalis."

"Umm...hi?" He greeted them, and he received a grunt from Damnation, a sweet 'hello to you two' from Salvation and an unbroken stare from Chryxalis.

"Haha. Well, nice to meet ya kid-whatever-your-name-is, but we're gonna go back to sleep." It proclaimed, and the others agreed, as Salvation and Damnation's glow receded until it was no more and Chryxalis was once again a simple crystal bracelet.

The sword nodded at him. "I've been awake while Cross was stalking you to know that you're a fine man. You've suffered, but you haven't turned to evil because of it; though you probably weren't far from it before he found you. We acknowledge you as a candidate to be our wielder, but ONLY as a candidate Naruto Uzumaki. You will have to earn the right to be our wielder, it will not be given to you just because Cross has chosen you, not even Sal is that lax. But until you do, we will be nothing more than accessories that do less help than a blunt pencil. Until then." It proclaimed, before falling to the ground, and Naruto somehow heard it snoring. Despite the biological impossibility of objects sleeping. Heck, objects weren't even supposed to be sentient!

'_Yeah, I know. Weird isn't it?' _Lacroan commented.

'_You're telling me. But what do they mean by earning the right to be their wielder?' _

'_It's as he said. They will not be the weapons of legend that they are so long as you haven't earned the right to be their wielder. Much like how your two other innate races' powers won't be available until they think you're worthy. As of now, Trilithon is a perfectly good unbreakable sword, only thing is, he won't cut anything or anyone. Same with Chryxalis and the others. As for what they want, that's for us to know and you to find out unless they themselves tell you.'_ Naruto sighed at the response, as he had actually been quite giddy after seeing Trilithon's magnificent edge. Unfortunately, it won't be cutting anyone for a while...

'_No worries! It's the man that makes the weapon, not the other way around! For now, let's just get you up to shape. Now if you will allow me to take over, I think I have a feeling as to what Cross has left in his belt...' _He trailed off as Naruto relinguished control.

Lacroan gently picked up the items, depositing them on the table. The greaves weren't sentient but would work at full capacity only when Trilithon said so. Cross had made the connection between Trilithon and the Auroras during their creation, all but making them brothers to Trilithon.

He touched the gem on belt when he was done and a smile that reached ear-to-ear formed when he made a full assessment of what was left in the numerous pocket dimensions stored in the belt.

Oh yes, Cross had indeed thought of everything...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson wandered around the village, taking in every inch of the city for future reference. Many times his life had been saved and victory had been achieved simply because he knew the layout of his location. Despite being an extremely lax ninja village, it was still a ninja village, and ninja villages were prone to attack, moreso with this particular one. If his information of this world was right, this city was at the end of its life. Having fully lived out its glory days and lost pretty much all of its truly noble and powerful men to the sands of time, becoming negligent and weak due to excessive peace and was now being quickly corrupted by its politicians and councilmen. It was a prime example of an empire at the precipice of its demise.

His family had seen it happen time and time again. Give this village a few decades or so (possibly less than that) and you will be treated to the grand sight of a crumbling civilization at the throes of its death.

Crimson himself had only seen it happen four times, and once you got over its more depressing aspects, you had to admit that the fall of an empire is a grand sight. One that never grows old. Why do you think the other beings higher-up in the food chain love making it happen so much?

The other villages probably recognized the signs, and there was a higher chance of Konoha meeting its end on the blade of another village than by its own corrupt officials. So by no means was he going to be lost or befuddled in the village while an attack that could happen at any time was going on. That was sure-fire way to get killed.

He knew he was extremely powerful and had retained all of his powers unlike most of his comrades, yes, but he wasn't so arrogant as to dismiss the very real possibility of dying by these third-rate (to his standards at least) ninjas. Greater men than he had fallen under weaker beings.

He was so caught up in his musings that he didn't notice a certain purple-haired snake mistress until an instant before the collision that sent them both crashing on their rumps. "Oof!" He heard a feminine voice cry out.

He shook his head to clear the stars in his vision before standing up and extending a hand to the female he had bumped into. "Sorry about that M'lady. I was caught up in my thoughts. I apologize for bumping into you in such a manner". He quickly offered. You wouldn't believe how many fights could be avoided if you would just act polite.

Anko Mitarashi shook her head to clear the dizziness in her head as she heard the man she had bumped into voice his apology. Now, normally, she would just go and terrorize the person whenever they interrupt her walk to her dango shop but he was nice and polite, and judging by his accent, he was foreign. Her hitai-ate was clearly visible on her forehead so she had to act civil to someone who hadn't earned her wrath. They had a reputation to uphold after all. But then again, he was taking the blame, so she might as well milk it for all it's worth.

And so, with a grunt, she grabbed the offered hand and pulled herself up, wiping some imaginary dust from her trenchcoat. "I'll accept the apology if you go and buy me all the dango I can eat. I'm in a bad mood today and you won't like me when I'm in a bad mood..." She bartered in a gruff tone. She was pleasantly surprised to hear his accord.

"Agreed. I do not have anything planned today anyway Miss..."

"Anko"

"Anko." He bobbed his head in approval "Crimson Avedon is my name. I just came to the city today and finished packing my things. So I am free for the entire afternoon." He informed her. "On a side note, I have the sudden feeling that my wallet is going to become quite lighter after today. Much like when my sister" an eye twitch "drags me off for some binge drinking. Are you by any chance someone who eats her own weight in food?" He asked, practically expecting the answer.

Anko just gave him an innocent grin.

His eye twitched a second time. Between her state of dress and her probable preferred food, the similarities between her and Sally were WAY too close.

Hopefully, she won't be similar enough to warrant any violent flashbacks while with her.

Hopefully.

Oh, how he hated that word.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All things considered, it wasn't SO bad. The flashbacks weren't so bad that he was frothing on the ground...yet.

She was so much like Sally it wasn't even funny! Heck, if Sally was to somehow meet her, they would probably hit off and then turn Anko's state of dress into a fashion statement! And unless most of the females here know Anko's technique or method to keep the edges of the trenchcoat covering their modesty; they might as well be going out topless, something that Sally can probably convince them to risk happening to themselves if her abilities of persuasion were anything to go by...and the sudden spike of cold running down his spine worried him greatly. One of the most trusted senses of Lacroans were their 'sixth sense'. If they felt something bad was about to happen then something bad WAS going to happen unless they did something about it.

The fact that he had felt something was about to happen while he was thinking of a bad thing meant that whatever he was thinking of was more or less going to happen. Unfortunately, he couldn't act against Sally or else risk her wrath, aka blackmail.

No. He would sooner see the female population at large dress in such undignified clothing than have his deepest secrets be brought to light to friends that would give him hell about it.

He was bought out of his musings, however, by a nondescript man tapping him on the shoulder. "Yes?" He politely asked, although he noted not with little interest that a dismal change seemed to settle in Anko's mood, along with...resignation? Why indeed. This was a mystery he had a feeling would be solved quite quickly.

"You're new here in Konoha aren't you?" The man questioned, to which Crimson gave a nod.

"Well that's good. I thought you were an actual _friend_ of _her_. You should stay away from the_ snake whore_." He noted the unconcealed disgust in the man's voice, as if it was degrading to him to even address her in a degrading nickname "I don't know why the Hokage trusts her when she's obviously just like her fuckin master and'll betray us the first chance she gets. I'm just giving you a warning so that you won't be a stranger here in Konoha."

The shop had gone silent after the blatant proclamation and he could see at the edges of his vision Anko placing her clenched fists on the table and her legs in preparation for a quick run out of the store.

He understood now. She was Orochimaru's wayward apprentice. He didn't have much data about her, not seeing her as a truly important person, and the fact that pretty much all of the people who knew about her regarded her with contempt and whose information was affected by their opinions and not by their common sense (not that the human race as a whole had much of it if not none at all). He couldn't trust any details diluted by emotions, especially the negative ones.

And now that he was face to face with her, one truly close look at her eyes (along with a very slight mental intrusion, one that just barely touched her mind and only gave him a small inkling of her mental disposition, though it was enough), he had made up his mind that the villagers were just a bunch of typical violent and stupid humans.

His hand shot out and grasped the man's arm, and followed it with a stunning display of moves that for a lack of a better word _flowed_ around the man, breaking all of his limbs and then throwing him out of the shop with such skill and precision, that he was flying in a straight line five meters after he was out of the bar and seven more before he crashed painfully into the ground, literally eating ground with the way Crimson had thrown him, which had resulted in the man dragging his face on the ground at enough speeds that the dirt and grime on the ground had gone past his throat as he screamed before slamming into a post, out cold.

"You preach about your village's benevolent attitude toward its inhabitants, and yet, right here, not a day before I've come in, you have already proven yourselves to be hypocrites by ostracizing one of your best jounin. Let this be a lesson to you: I will not tolerate anything negative being said or done to my friends; of which Anko is a part of, and anyone who does anything will be castrated...painfully. And don't think I'll go easy on you women just because you're female. If anything, my punishment is worse." He proclaimed, going back to sit in front of Anko and sipping his tea as if nothing unusual was amiss.

He raised an eyebrow at her as she continued to stare dumbfounded at him as the other customers went back to what they were doing, only they were giving him glares and were muttering less than appropriate things about him every now and then. He silently nodded in approval at the owner of the bar, whom he knew accepted Anko not just because she provided him a lot of profit (though it wasn't unappreciated) but merely because he wasn't as much of a close-minded idiotic human as most and actually treated others fairly. "Aren't you going to finish your dangos? They're getting cold" He remarked casually.

Speechlessly, she sat back down, but Crimson couldn't help but notice, that she had the beginnings of true smile on her face now...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(this is a few days after Crimson's beatdown of the citizen and Lacroan setting up the house, which happened at the same day)

In an otherwise vacant room, Naruto couldn't help but continue to poke the objects Lacroan had brought out of the belt and set up in the house.

They were unassuming, just eight five feet high circular wooden posts. Numerous signs and whatnot were carved onto them but the carvings were so shallow that they were extremely hard to see.

They were the only features in the room, whose floor had 8 more holes perfectly-sized for the wooden posts, with one that was exactly four times the size of the normal holes in the center that was already occupied by a wooden post four times the size of the norm.

'_What do these things do?'_ He asked.

'_*sigh* They're containers. The runes carved on them create a pocket dimension whose volume is relative on the object's actual volume. The size of the pocket dimension is the wooden post's volume multiplied by dozens of thousands of times.'_

'_Ohh...but if the belt already has a pocket dimension like the containers, then why don't you put everything in the containers in the belt? It's easier to access, and you said yourself that it's impossible for anyone to steal the belt__**(1)**__!' _He proposed.

'_Simple, because the belt doesn't have enough space to contain everything, so we did the next best thing. We put larger containers inside the pocket dimension of the belt.' _Lacroan explained, and Naruto nodded mentally.

'_It's good you understand, now, we have to get you some basic equipment for training. The training room has its own equipment, yes. But it's a tad bit too complex for you to use as you are now. We'll start using it after your skills are deemed sufficient." _He informed him, gesturing mentally to the larger-than-normal post at the center of the room.

Naruto pouted at the lost chance of using cool stuff but eventually obliged, although the question remained... _'How are we going to buy proper equipment? If you haven't forgotten already, the whole village hates me.'_ He pointed out.

Lacroan had an answer to that. _'I have heard of a new citizen in town that owns a ninja supply store. They don't have his name, but it is apparently news that he injured a citizen for insulting a certain Anko Mitarashi; Orochimaru's ex-apprentice. If he has enough of a sense to look past a person's reputation then he might have enough of a sense to look past the mirage of Kyuubi and see a child.'_

Naruto had to agree with that.

'_Alright, take a hundred thousand yen and make sure you are not seen when you leave the house; we don't want this place getting burned down. Then, follow my directions. His shop isn't that far from our house so it shouldn't...'_ Lacroan continued giving Naruto instructions, confident in his plan. Yet, somehow, he couldn't help but feel something familiar about the stranger. About how no one seemed to remember exactly what he wore or looked...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto blinked when he looked at the abode.

The house looked normal, with no flaws whatsoever with its features. The paint looked like the exact way you would expect a normal house's paint to look, the wood varnished in just the right amount to look normal, and the cement with normal level of workmanship. It was the perfect representation of a normal well-kept house. In fact, it seemed so normal, it was suspicious. I mean, no house can look so much like what you usually think of when you think of a normal house!

'_Hey Lacroan, do you feel as if something's off about this house?'_

'_Yes.'_

'_You do?!'_

'_Yeah. It's so perfectly normal, nothing's off about it. Naruto, if this is who I think it is, we have just been blessed by the gods.'_ Lacroan told him.

'_What do you mean?'_

'_Just go in, and hope to your god that the shopkeeper has pale skin, black hair, purple eyes, and wears a white trenchcoat that has red markings all over it with a black symbol on the back'_

Naruto didn't have an answer to that and just walked in.

The first thing he saw was a table with several rows of kunais and shurikens and other throwing weapons. Then there were several racks of ninja footwear of all sizes. Then there were ninja clothes and armor. Then there was one with sealing scrolls, soldier pills, med-kits, numerous herbs and whatnot for making brews for poisons or medicines. After that were a collection of so many kinds of weapons, he couldn't help but stare at them. All that and more.

But there was one thing that was consistent in everything he had in the shop though: they were all perfectly, and frustratingly normal. The kunais were perfectly-balanced and made, but that was it. The same with everything else, even the numerous assortment of weapons; they were diverse and perfectly made, but they were the typical forms of their kind. Nothing ultimately unusual about them.

'_Naruto...we hit the jackpot.'_ Lacroan muttered as Naruto turned his gaze at the end of the room.

At the back end was a door, and beside it were a simple wooden half-circle desk and chair, with another two in front of the table; supposedly for the customers. Behind that was a large cabinet filled with numerous rectangular silver blocks. Each block shared the exact same intricate markings and a silver stone embedded into them. The only differences between them all were two runes carved onto one end for each block. What caught his eye, however, was the person sitting on the chair.

He was exactly as Lacroan described him to be. Pale skin that was just enough to make him look exotic instead of sickly, obsidian black hair, vibrant purple eyes, and a white trenchcoat with red markings all over it. He didn't need to see the back to know there was a black symbol there. He was sitting nonchalantly on the wooden chair, his legs crossed under the table and reading a book with a completely black cover, smiling serenely.

Naruto couldn't help but stare at him. For several moments, he thought he was looking at Cross Azala Erazur; for the man could have been his twin if it wasn't for his eyes, which was only lengthened by the feeling of peace he felt when in this man's presence, just like when he was being carried by Cross.

His period of staring ended when the man's eyes slowly tilted upward from the book, locking onto his own. Then, with a voice like that of an angel's he spoke. "Hello there child. Do you need something?" He asked, and Naruto almost forgot how to speak. The voice was obviously different from Cross's, but the similarities with the tone and how they spoke was still shocking. Who was this man?

"...err..umm.." The edges of the man's lips quirked upward. "Do not be fretful, just talk and let your words flow from your mouth." He encouraged him.

If anything, this just made him more fretful. Thankfully, he was spared more embarrassment by Lacroan's timely help, telling him what to say. "I-I'm here to buy some ninja supplies sir." He stuttered slightly at the start.

The man smiled, nodding at him, standing up to walk in front of him. "Child, call me Crimson. As for what you need, would you mind specifying?" He requested.

Naruto almost went back to unintelligible sounds. Fortunately, Lacroan was there to aid him. "35 Kunai and Shuriken, 400 meters of ninja wire, two sets of ninja sandals and clothes, two kunai and shuriken holsters, a full first aid kit, and a set of every kind of weapon you have."

Crimson's eyes twinkled. "I believe I have all of that. Although..." He looked Naruto up and down. "How do you suppose you're going to get it to your house?"

Lacroan mentally blushed and spluttered uselessly at the issue. Of course, how could he have forgotten to think of a way to get what he was going to buy to the house?! Naruto's body wasn't exactly a bodybuilder's...

Crimson chuckled with mirth, before waving his worries away. "Worry not, I shall deliver them myself. Just give me your address and I will take care of everything."

Naruto beamed with delight and happily gave him the address to his house. Normally, there would have been issues about trust, but whoever this man was, was certainly not someone who wished him ill.

Crimson nodded at the address. "Yes, I believe I can do it. Now, about the payment."

Naruto quickly gave him all of the hundred thousand and was quite surprised to see that a bit more than half of the money was returned. He looked at Crimson, then at the money, then at the merchandise, then back at Crimson.

Crimson eyes twinkled in amusement at him. "You'll be surprised how little the materials and actually making the items cost. I only charge customers for the profit that I actually need and slightly want." He explained.

Naruto smiled before waving goodbye as he walked to the door, their business now finished.

"Also,"

Naruto turned his head back.

Crimson was still smiling at him. "I know about your situation as the container of the Kyuubi, and the villagers' treatment of you. Please, if you ever need help or sanctuary, my house and myself are at your service. And don't worry about the neighbors being suspicious of you. I'll make sure none see me deliver the products."

Naruto nodded dumbly, before turning back to the door and walking out.

Crimson continued smiling, but this turned into an expression of complete surprise when he suddenly saw an image of the Fourth Hokage appear on Naruto. It was looking at him, straight at him.

It gave him an approving nod, and its next words gave him quite a shock. "Don't help too much Crim. He has to deal with his problems on his own." It said before disappearing.

It was only a few moments after Naruto had completely left, that Crimson fully comprehended what he saw.

It was not the fourth Hokage. The lack of _Hitai-ate_ and the different clothes were tell-tale marks of it. But the actual style of the clothes and the whisker marks on his cheeks gave a deeper meaning.

The clothes were Lacroan, to be more specific; Cross's. And those whisker marks were Naruto's.

Naruto was going to be the next Hybrid King.

He chuckled to himself. Who would have thought that he would meet the next best thing to his Lord in this village?

"I am definitely staying here." He promised himself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'_Hey Lacroan'_

'_Yes?'_

'_Was Crimson...a Lacroan?'_ Naruto asked, feeling weird saying the word as a name and species.

'_No. He WAS an Avedon human. But genetic experimentation by an extremely lucky human organization that managed to find a Lacroan corpse and catch him unawares resulted in a change in his species. Currently, he IS a Lacroan.'_

Naruto's eyes widened. He was once a human and he had been turned into a Lacroan? _'Wait, if he was an Avedon, what branch was he?"_

He heard a chuckle before the answer. _'Assassin branch'_

Naruto blinked away the shock. Assassin? He certainly didn't FEEL like an assassin.

'_Oh, he certainly is. He just isn't acting like an Avedon right now. I'll explain it now so that you'll understand. Avedons are sometimes considered bipolar because of a certain state they are put in when a mission is invoked. They are the best at what they do, and have never failed at what they do. The only ones that do are those that haven't turned twenty-four yet, which is when their physical body fully develops. Anyway, an Avedon, can be said as having two personas. His first name, and THE Avedon. Crimson would act like he usually does; benevolent, but fierce when provoked. But when he is given a mission, the Avedon persona will kick in. _

'_When this persona is in control, all that will remain in his life is the mission; his full attention will always be on his mission and everything else matters none. I do not have the words to explain it, but...Crimson, when he was in Avedon mode, was the most brilliant fighter you will ever see. He will also be the most deadly assassin, and the most merciless killer. In truth, I hope you do not have to see the Avedon persona in action.'_ He finished gravely.

Naruto cut off his questions when he felt Lacroan's uneasiness. And it terrified him. What could be so frightening about an Avedon in that state? More importantly, he had Avedon blood running through his veins. Will the same thing happen to him?

'_Hardly. Avedon mode can only be achieved if you have the mentality of one. And to have the mentality of one, you would need to born as one and develop it early on, which can only happen with careful supervision from numerous adult Avedons. You have already passed the stage of developing the state, so do not worry.' _

Naruto sighed in relief; he didn't want to be something that scared Lacroan so.

'_Stay focused. We're nearing the house, and we don't want to be seen going in it.'_ Lacroan reminded him.

Naruto nodded mentally and did as he was told, waiting until the coast was clear before entering as fast and silently as he could. A surprised waited for him inside.

His orders had already been delivered. In the living room, four sealing scrolls and a letter had been placed nearly on a table.

He read the letter:

_Naruto,_

_Everything you ordered is here. The first one contains the sets of every weapon you ordered (save the kunai, shuriken, and ninja wire), the second has the clothes and sandals, the third has the kunai, shuriken, the kunai and shuriken holsters, and the ninja wire, and the fourth has the first aid kit._

_I hope to see you again in my shop,_

_Crimson Avedon_

_P.S. The sealing scrolls are yours._

Lacroan couldn't help but give out an observation. _'He works fast' _

Naruto just nodded.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Whoa! Lacroan-san! This is awesome!" Naruto yelled out in joy as he gazed at the expanse that was contained in the larger-than-normal post.

It was a HUMUNGOUS training room, with everything a Hybrid King would have needed to keep his body in shape and his skills sharp.

As he studied certain objects, he finally understood what Lacroan had meant when he said that the equipment was too complex. Heck, he understand less than a tenth of everything in it!

He turned around and blinked in shock when he saw that the weapons and other stuff he had brought had somehow been put inside their proper containers.

'_Don't be surprised. That's one of the abilities of this room. It sets up everything in here to its proper places after use. So you won't have to clean up. If you're curious where it gets the energy though, it gets the energy from matter that you secrete. Sweat, dead skin, stuff like that is converted into energy when you leave.'_

Naruto nodded, making sure to remember everything that he said.

'_Anyway, it's time we start. First off, I need you to run as long as you can with your speed above 7 kilometers an hour. Then we'll go into other exercises to test out your other muscles' capacity. Take note, that I will be training you almost completely on your physical capabilities for a few years. It will get boring without trying out any moves that makes stuff explode, but bear with me.'_

"What?! A few YEARS?! That's so long!" Naruto complained.

Lacroan gave him a mental glare. _'Naruto. This process is important. It is vital to making your body perfect for when Cross returns and gives you the powers of the other races. If you don't, there will be a good chance you'll get turned into a monstrosity instead of a perfect blend of species. Do you want that to happen?'_ He finished by giving him a mental image of some vampires who had assimilated too much and turned into a hideous amalgam of body parts.

Naruto shuddered, and did as he was told. Anything was better than becoming THAT.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson was bored.

Which wasn't quite so bad a thing as when his brother was bored. Because when his brother, Cross Avedon was bored, there would suddenly be news of mass genocide.

'Wasn't QUITE so bad', since when Crimson was bored, he sometimes made meteors fall out of the sky to relieve his boredom. Well, at least he gave the people a quick death. Cross delighted in giving his victims a long and painful one.

Unfortunately, a meteor anywhere in the city would also kill Anko or Naruto. So he couldn't do it.

And so, he decided to take another stroll in the village, putting a normal white background, black text 'Shop Closed' sign in the most normal looking font you can imagine on the most normal looking place on the door and went out into the city.

Already, he could feel his boredom dying. He had only been in the city for a few days so he hadn't gone everywhere in it yet. If he was in a rush and paranoid, he would have known everything from the Hokage's secret stash to the recipe of that kind ramen vendor's recipe. He was kind of relieved he hadn't gone on an information spree yet. The city would have grown maddeningly boring to him if he did.

He looked around him when he heard a commotion.

It was the Hyuuga. The clan head was surrounded by numerous branch members and was walking towards the Hokage tower.

And he was in the way.

The procession stopped, and he raised an eyebrow at the solid stare/glare that he got from the clan head. Did they honestly expect him to step aside without a word?

He mentally laughed at the sheer audacity. If he knew what HE was, he would be kissing his feet and doing everything he wanted. The line of the Hyuuga had nothing on the Avedons.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hyuuga Hiashi frowned as the stranger stared back at him and didn't move from the spot.

He studied his clothing and presumed that he was a foreigner, hence, why he didn't know of the great Hyuuga clan. He was about to signal his guards to continue while he gave the stranger a warning that the next time, he should give way when the stranger spoke.

"Hyuuga, Hiashi, if you're waiting for me to move, then you're wasting you're time. I would gladly move from my spot if you asked nicely and said please but I have a feeling that you're too proud to say that to anyone." This proclamation resulted in a collection of gasps from nearly everyone.

Hiashi fumed. The sheer cheek of the commoner! He knew of the Hyuugas and yet, he did not move? He was willing to let him go with a slap to the wrist, but now that he knew the truth, he was determined to make him pay.

Crimson could take a guess on what Hiashi was thinking, judging by the rigid posture, the slight twitch of his arms, and the barely noticeable reddish tint to his cheeks.

He grinned mentally. He had a good idea how to piss him off even more.

He turned sideways and started walking towards another street, all the while saying; "As much as I love being a roadblock, I have things to do. And if you're thinking about punishing me, then don't bother. You'll just forget about me anyway, after all, the great Hyuuga clan head has better things to do than think about _commoners_."

There was another collective gasp, and in that single instant where the crowd was too shocked to part in his wake, he joined the mass of bodies, and was seen no more. Even if someone DID see him, they would somehow not recognize him, as their memories about him would be too blurry.

Ahh, the wonders of being a psychic.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After leaving the pissed-off Hyuuga behind, Crimson couldn't help but wonder if the Uchihas were as bad as them, and couldn't help but be curious of the sharingan. And so, he decided to sneak in the Uchiha compound.

At which, he couldn't help but be utterly disappointed at their skills.

The security was so lax! A twelve-year-old prankster could have snuck in! (as he thought this, numerous alternate selves of Naruto at age 12 sneezed) And if a twelve-year-old could do that, then an actual experienced enemy ninja could. At which where he would probably murder every male but one and steal everyone left for his village.

At the level one of the best clans of Konoha was, he was surprised the place had actually managed to remain in existence for a few years.

Even more, as he watched several of them sparring, his already-low outlook on them sunk even lower. They gained their prestige simply from their bloodline limit, or Kekkei Genkai. Nearly all of the jutsus they knew came from copying others' hard-won effort, and nothing else (and he had a feeling more than a little of them were from their own allies). They were lower than honorless thieves; as even they would have to work to steal something, and the world would probably be better off with them dead. And in truth, he was about to make the choice to cast a gravity spell on their compound and utterly flatten everything when he saw him...

He was different from the others the moment he saw him.

He was proud, but not too the point of arrogance, and his source of pride was not from his clan, but from his confidence over his own skills; which were brilliant for a human his age.

He wasn't dependent on the sharingan like all the others. On the contrary, he didn't even use it that much.

He knew a lot of jutsus, and it seemed as if he got it from hard work, instead of stealing from others.

He was independent, confident, a genius.

And as he studied his life among his family, he couldn't help but feel as if it was him reborn.

He looked up, noticing that the sun was setting and decided he would go home for now and continue studying him tomorrow.

Uchiha Itachi. Child genius, pride and joy (actually, probably only pride) of the clan and can quite possibly become the greatest Uchiha since Uchiha Madara. He was pressured by his responsibilities, both from himself and his clan. His will was strong, but even steel would break from the burden he was carrying.

But if he turned him into something beyond mere metal, he had no doubt he would persevere through all the challenges in his life.

Now, the only question was, how to introduce himself?

The question remained on his mind until sleep came.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

His eye twitched when Anko suddenly barged into his shop, dragging a hapless bald man in a black trenchcoat with her. Jeezus, this was the fourth visit in as many days! (although he wasn't around yesterday. He knew she came because of patrolling invisible flying eyes) Doesn't she have anything else to do? Right now, he was regretting voicing out his opinion of her in public by injuring that man.

"Hey there Crim-kun! Did you miss me?" She asked him as a greeting.

"We met just two days ago. I hardly think that's enough time to miss someone Anko. So no, I don't." He deadpanned politely, which was a skill he had perfected many years ago to deal with crazy devilkin cousins and siblings.

Anko pouted. "That's so mean Crim-kun. And after all the effort I put into making it a great day for you."

Another eye twitch. Dragging him into a lingerie store while she posed in front of him in different outfits had woken a memory he would rather not remember. It was a good thing he had shut down all but the most vital of his body functions while that was happening. Convulsing and frothing at the mouth in front of a girl while she's modeling was extremely rude. She might have been causing him violent flashbacks, but she knew no better than the average bystander about his problems so he couldn't blame her. After all, most men would have enjoyed what she (both Anko and Sally) did.

He only wished he WAS most men.

He turned his gaze on the man she had dragged into the store and raised an eyebrow. Morino Ibiki? Konoha's lead torture expert? He glanced back at Anko, made a few calculations and assumed that Anko probably worked with him a lot. Ibiki seemed like someone who could see past the hatred of Orochimaru and Anko hadn't tried to hide from him that she liked inflicting pain upon others.

He stood up, walked over to him, and held out a hand. Ibiki glanced at him before nodding and shaking the offered hand, seemingly satisfied with what he saw.

"I assume you came here not of your own volition?" Crimson asked, though he already knew the answer, judging by how Anko had been dragging him into the place.

"I told her I needed some new equipment. She just grabbed my arm and ran here before I knew what was happening." Crimson glanced at Anko, who just grinned at them both. Yes, it certainly explained matters.

"Very well. Business is business. Just tell me what you need and I will check if I have it."

Ibiki complied, giving out a list of torture equipment, assassination weapons, and typical ninja supplies. He had all of them.

He smiled, nodded, went into the door, where he managed to glimpse him walking up a spiraling staircase before the door closed. All was silent.

"So that's him huh?" Ibiki asked for confirmation.

Anko nodded, grinning all the time.

He grunted, saying; "Hmph. Seems a decent enough man. But I can't help but notice everything here seems...off." He voiced out his opinion.

Anko stopped grinning and looked around, and she had to agree that he was right. What was it? How everything was placed? No. There wasn't anything suspicious. They weren't subtly positioned to provide a crude shield for escape measures. Was it the paint? Hardly, if you actually looked at it, it would actually seem to be in the state you'd expect a normal house's paint to look. The merchandise? Besides having everything she needed and more, none of them were special.

Her eyes widened when she realized what was off: Nothing.

Which was quite simply impossible since even a normal civilian with a deadwall job would have something unique or uncommon about his home. And with how unusual Crimson was, she would have expected him to have SOMETHING unusual about him.

She glanced back at Ibiki, and was both happy and worried to see that he had figured it out too. Since if all this had intentionally been made to look like this, then Crimson could very well be a spy. The look-so-normal-no-one-will-notice-you shtick was an old plan, but a very effective one that was still used (and successfully, I might add) today.

She bit her lip. If this was true, then Crimson had probably been playing with her all along. He could have been using her intense devotion to her few friends as a means to get information about Konoha. Sure, he hadn't asked anything...yet. But they had only known each other for days, and if he was a professional, he would probably wait for the time she utterly trusted before doing so.

"Hmm...I'm surprised. I didn't think anyone would notice it after just a few days. This village is more competent than I thought." The voice of the man she had been thinking about interrupted her thoughts.

He was leaning on the door, with several sealing scrolls in one hand and an eyebrow raised in a slight gesture of approval.

She grabbed a kunai and settled into a defensive position, with Ibiki mimicking her.

His eyebrow rose every so slightly higher, before he rolled his eyes and sighed. "You didn't get the meaning of setting everything up to look normal didn't you?"

Her interest was piqued by his words. "Meaning? What do you mean?"

He walked over to his seat and settled comfortable into it, his chin supported by his hands. "I am not a spy if that is what you're thinking. I am allied to no nation, I have no signs of ever being involved in criminal activities, and I have all legal rights to be here. Now sit down. It is disconcerting talking to someone when they're in a stance to kill you." He waved a hand at the two chairs in front of his table.

Moving stiffly, they sat down. He sighed in relief. "Good. Now, what do you know about me?"

"You are supposedly not as simple-minded as nearly everyone in this village, you are a supposed 'normal' shopkeeper of ninja supplies, and nothing is off about your shop; which is unnerving in of itself." Ibiki chose to answer.

He nodded, before gesturing to the shop. "And THAT is your clue to find out what I REALLY do. I will give you two some hints though; I really am a merchant, but what I sell isn't only what you see. Find something here that you will not see anywhere else in Konoha; but not so specific, and generalize it one step, then you should understand what I mean."

She looked back at everything in it. He meant the items, so she had to see what was here that wasn't found anywhere else in the village. The ninja clothes were of basic design and could have been bought here, so were the sandals, the scrolls, the herbs? There were some that she hadn't seen or heard about here but that was if she went into every species. And what he was hinting at wasn't herbs. So what?

She blinked when she glanced at the weapons, before her eyes widened in realization.

"Ah, I believe you understand now. If it were herbs, you would have to be as specific as the species itself. But the weapons, now, I'm sure none of you have seen scimitars before, or how about whipblades? Wave swords are rare even from where I came from." He gestured to a curving blade which broadened at the tip, a medium-length blade that was segmented and could act like a whip, and a pair of strange serrated blades that resembled two interconnected metal copies of its namesake.

"Those are certainly unique only to here, and isn't as specific as to who made them since they are all basic. Generalize that: weapons. Now, what do you think I truly sell if I already sell ordinary varieties of them?"

The word ordinary clicked in her head. "You're...a blacksmith?"

He nodded. "Yes, but I'm more than that. Come, I shall show you some of my creations." He suddenly started writing in the air, and incredibly, his fingers generated a path of bluish-white light. In two seconds, there was an extremely complex circle in the air and he had slammed his palm onto it.

A moment later, they found themselves in the Forest of Death.

Not even a second after, he had suddenly brought out a kunai and a shuriken holster and strapped them on each thigh. Then came a series of rapid-fire throws that very few ninjas could match, all of which hit their marks dead-on. But that wasn't what surprised them. It was how many times he did them and how much damage they did.

A kunai holster can possibly hold 16 kunai, the same with the shuriken holster. But he was throwing more than a hundred of them by now. And the damage they did was impossible without using chakra to reinforce or strengthen them, but they still did it.

They went through entire trees, cut through solid rock, and still they came, until a section of the teeming jungle they were in had been reduced to so much kindling, and pebble. Wordlessly, he suddenly took out to whipblades and segmented the portions, wrapping them around a tree and a large boulder, before pulling tightly, and watched their jaws drop as the targets were shredded into pieces.

He put them back wherever he had pulled them out from and watched as the two studied and touched the damage done, disbelieving.

"Oh, they're real. I can promise you that. But someone will have heard us, so were going back." He did the same thing he did last time and they were back in the shop. Nothing had changed there, but they could still smell the air of the forest, and the holsters hadn't disappeared from his thighs.

"I am a weaponsmith. I create weapons vastly more powerful than normal ones, for a price. But I will not make them for just any man. He has to find out about my true calling first before he can ask for them." He answered their previous question.

"H-how? There wasn't any chakra in them, and I don't think you can throw THAT hard. And you weren't taking the excess kunai and shuriken from a sealing scroll." Ibiki asked him.

Crimson raised the kunai holster, emptying out a single one and fingering a small black circle on the unique weapon. "Simple really. The holster isn't a constantly open spacial seal. It merely contains a seal resembling that of the Fourth Hokage, enabling you to retrieve the kunai or shuriken with a VERY low cost of chakra" The two gasped at this. A minor recreation of the move, even one such as this, was worth a fortune! "and the power of the weapons are from simple enchantments and runes that I have cast and carved on a very low scale on it. Enchantments can be cast on any size, as long as you have enough energy, and you won't reduce the power of a rune by carving it smaller."

"All that and more. I can make a sword that called upon the lightning of heaven itself if you had enough to pay for it, or a dagger that can coat itself in any kind of venom you want. There is a lot that I have yet to learn to make, but what I do know are good enough." He finished.

The two could not speak. The ability to make such weapons...who was he?

"You two are the first ones to find out, so I guess there should be a prize." He glanced at the stuff Ibiki had requested and took set one apart from the others. "Judging by your reactions, you two would definitely like the returning throwing weapons. So..." He unsealed the scroll, revealing normal kunai, shuriken, and kunai and shuriken holsters. He made another sign and teleported all these elsewhere, then did another one, revealing another set of the special ones.

He threw these at Anko and Ibiki. "The cost will be 65 thousand yen for each full holster. So 130 thousand yen from each of you. Although Ibiki, I hope you won't forget that I need an extra 30 thousand from you to pay for the other ones you requested."

The two blinked when he said the cost. Not at how high it was. It was at how small he had asked for them. The returning weapons would normally have cost a fortune, but he had priced them at an extremely low price compared to what they expected. They were NOT going to pass this up.

Several minutes later, the two were once again in the city, bright smiles on their faces. The only condition he had given to them, was to tell NO ONE about it, under threat of a meteor falling down on their heads. They didn't know whether to scoff, or be scared, so they chose scared to be on the safe side. Besides, he could damn well kill them anyway with all the weapons he had at his disposal.

Anko examined a kunai and shuriken in each hand. They were different from normal ones. Their colors had been reversed; the kunai was silver with a black symbol while the shuriken was obsidian black with a silver symbol. And their shape was different. The kunai resembled a slender knife, with a serrated edge on the back and on the part where it curved. It was thicker than most knives, but thinner than a kunai, but it still had the ring on the handle for multipurpose uses. The shuriken was six-sided, its blades were quite a bit longer and spiraled instead of being triangular points, and it was serrated near the end.

She couldn't help but admire the workmanship, and the small symbol was very hard to spot, much less read. But when she actually looked at it, she discovered it was the same symbol on Crimson's back.

It was a mystery, and she was quite eager to solve it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson smiled at their retreating forms. He knew they could be trusted and would keep their word. They had promised and sworn on it, and he had read their minds.

He glanced at his watch. And just in time too.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in...Itachi"

The door opened, and the child prodigy entered.

"Good morning, Crimson-sensei." He politely answered with a bow.

"Mah mah, only call me that when we're actually training. Also, I hope you haven't been seen by anyone."

Itachi blanched. "Of course not!"

"Well you were, but don't worry, the hapless civilian now has no memory of it. One of my summons has taken care of that."

Itachi blushed at his blunder.

Crimson smiled at him, and gestured to the back door. "Now come, we have a lot to teach you today."

Itachi immediately lightened up, and followed his sensei.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

**Explanations:**

**(1) Anyone but a Thief Branch Avedon that is...**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Ha! Now I bet NONE of you imagined THAT didn't ya?**

**Now, I haven't written out the scene on how Itachi became Crimson's apprentice and why he said that Itachi seems like him reborn. I'll write that out in the next chapter, where Sally MIGHT appear.**

**I hope everyone here likes Crim, cause he's gonna get more awesome if the next chapter goes as planned.**

**Anyway, just to explain some things, I'll tell you guys something about Cross Avedon. He is a Damned DEVIL, not demon. Devil. There is a difference.**

**A Damned Devil is a devil born of a damned soul. Cross killed a HELL lot of people in his short life and was sent to the Valley of the Damned for it. There, he piqued Satan's interest (who is just a high-ranking devil and not the King of Hell) and was chosen.**

**Basically, to create a damned devil, Satan chose a corpse of an ordinary born devil and animated it, before putting Cross's soul in it. If successful, this would result in the body changing to suit Cross's soul, and the devil body's powers itself to change. Born Devils are generalized until their bodies are fully developed, where they can be warriors, assassins, or mages, depending on their lifestyle. Usually, you would choose an undeveloped corpse so that the Damned Devil will be able to develop into a suitable form instead of being hampered by the developed body's chosen profession, and that is exactly what Satan did. **

**Generally though, Damned Devils develop into virtual powerhouses of energy. This is because their energy comes both from the naturally produced energy of their body, and their soul. It may not look it, but soul energy is incredibly powerful, and if wielded properly, provides more energy than you would think possible for a single soul. Even more, to become a Damned Devil, the soul must overpower the powerful body of a devil, so any successful Damned Devils have incredibly powerful souls.**

**For Damned Devils like Cross, they gain an incredibly high energy level, and use hellfire and shadow energy like there's no tomorrow with ease, giving the impression of walking nuclear plants with how much damage they can do in a sitting. However, energy-types like him are only 5/8 as strong or armored as a regular devil, but this can be sometimes remedied by their Devil Monster Form; a form unique to each Damned Devil which resembles something about them in life, if their monster form is a strong armored one.**

**Cross is an energy-type, which suits his pyromania and sociopathic tendencies just fine.**

**Anyway, that's all I have to say! Hopefully, you guys will think this chapter is awesome, and will be even more awed in the next chapter if I manage to put Sally in it.**

**See ya guys! And Please REVIEW! I update faster if you review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Gabriel: Now, a certain reviewer commented about the speed of Crimson's kunai and shuriken throws. Well, what better way to elaborate than with the man who did it himself! Come out Crim! So, the guy said he thought your speed was like that of a machine gun firing, care to explain?**

**Crimson: Hmm....yes, I guess it's like that. You see, my speed relates to the 'Fast Draw' sport of gunfighting, where in the fastest record, the gun is cocked, drawn, aimed (from the hip), and fired in just over 0.06 seconds. Let's put this into practice. In throwing a kunai or shuriken, you just need to grab it, hold it properly, and throw it. But in throwing, your arm has to cover more space that in 'Fast Draw', so it's slower. And you have to cover that space twice to get your hand back to grab another kunai or shuriken and then throw it again. So the fastest 'Fast Drawer' would take about .80 seconds to throw five. But Avedons are marginally more physically fit than ordinary humans. And I'm an assassin Avedon no less, which makes me the type for speed. So I would multiply my speed by at least three times. it would roughly be .28 seconds to throw five. so my throwing rate would be around 18-19 throws per second. So yes, it WOULD look like machine gun fire.**

**Gabriel: that was a LONG explanation.**

**Crimson: explanations are like that.**

**Gabriel: as for your other question, the one about Crim's weapons being stupid since they won't say what you're supposed to do to earn their recognition...yeah, Cross's weapons are like that. They choose whether you're worthy or not without giving a hint. So they won't influence you by telling you what you need to do. You just have to get lucky and do something they like. But it's not THAT impossible. They'll give you hints or outright tell you sometimes when they see an opportunity for you to fulfill what they want.**

**On a side note, Crim's gonna make a meteor fall on something. **

**Not gonna tell you any more, but PLEASE review!**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ten-year-old Uchiha Itachi; wielding a ninjato, trained in an otherwise empty training ground.

Swift, synchronous movements rarely found in one so young, blindingly fast, and with exceptional skill for one his age.

He was silent, calm, and completely focused, honing his skills to the fullest.

Unfortunately; or maybe fortunately, he was about to be interrupted.

"Your left flank is open. You wouldn't be able to do anything if someone tried to stab you from that side. You're holding your sword too tight. Such a thing will make it easier to numb your hand when blocking. Your arm's too high. A rightly-aimed thrust will be too fast for you to parry." A voice suddenly criticized him.

His head snapped in the direction of the voice, a fully-developed sharingan revealed in his eyes, and four shuriken in his free hand.

He frowned. It was a figure dressed in a white trenchcoat; buttoned up on the chest and midsection with strange markings, black pants, and black shoes with silver linings and more red markings. Pale skin looked pallid under the shadows of a tree, which in turn made his obsidian hair nearly invisible, but only made his striking lavender eyes stand out. Somehow, his sharingan couldn't get past the clothes the guy was wearing, and there was a haze of strange energy that covered his face. It wasn't chakra, it was something else entirely. Also, in his left hand, he was holding a wicker basket, one that had the carefully pulled stems of numerous herbs and plants.

"Who are you?" He asked warily; this guy may have been a herbalist or botanist who got lost in the woods and ended up here, but the critique he gave him and the fact that his sharingan couldn't get past his clothes suggested he wasn't just an ordinary civilian, the clothes were already pushing it after all.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Hmm...now that is a question I ask even myself sometimes. But as the one intruding, I have an obligation to state my name. It is Crimson Avedon. Now may I be so bold as to ask for yours?"

Itachi didn't let up his stance, but answered nonetheless. "Itachi Uchiha"

Crimson nodded. "Is that so? Well, greetings Itachi Uchiha. I do hope I'm not intruding into your clan grounds. I was just following a trail full of herbs to sell in my shop."

"Shop?"

Crimson nodded. "Yes. I'm a shopkeeper. But I just arrived here a few days ago, so it's expected that you wouldn't know of me. Would you mind if I continued what I was doing?" He asked, and Itachi gave the faintest of nods.

Smiling, he went back to work, sharp eyes scanning the ground for the plants he was trying to find and gently separating them from wherever they grew from and putting them in the basket.

Itachi continued to watch him, even as he went back to his training. However, he couldn't help but notice that his comments about his form were right. Another opponent would have been able to hit him while he was busy with the one in front. And the tighter you held your sword, the more your hand would vibrate with the sword, and a hard-enough hit would make enough vibrations to numb his hand...

He lowered his arm, shifted his position, and loosened his grip.

"Ah. Very good. These days, it's hard to find someone who can accept when he's wrong and take your advice." He turned around to see Crimson nodding in approval, his full basket on the ground beside him.

Itachi turned back to what he was doing. "I need every edge I can get. With how much my clan expects of me." He muttered.

Crimson nodded in understanding. "I know the feeling."

Itachi rolled his eyes, following a kick aimed at the neck with a stab that would have lodged the blade hilt-deep into his enemy's skull. "I doubt it."

It was Crimson's turn to roll his eyes. "Hardly. If you were to ask me, I would say that I actually had it worse with my 'clan's' aptitude."

Itachi stopped, before slowly turning to face him with a critical eye. "Are you implying that your clan is greater than mine?" His pride wasn't as big as, per say, Uchiha Fugaku, but he still had it.

Crimson's lips twitched upward, but otherwise didn't change. "I'm not implying anything. I'm _telling_ you that my clan is greater than yours."

Itachi's response was to throw four shuriken at him.

Crimson's right hand was a blur as he caught them in the air, before showing them to Itachi, the four shuriken in one straight finger like hoops at a bottle's neck. He tilted his finger downward, letting them fall into an open hand. "You'll need to do better than that." He muttered, smiling.

Itachi suddenly appeared behind him. "I already did." He replied, his blade slicing the air as it headed for his neck.

His eyes widened at the steely clang, and his hand shook from the impact, and yet, Crimson hardly ever twitched, his right hand holding one of the shurikens he caught to block his ninjato. "I'll say it again: You'll need to do better than that." This was followed by a back kick that sent him skidding several feet away, clutching his stomach.

He stilled when he heard the wind whistle from four shuriken being simultaneously-

No. Not simultaneously. One after the other, but so fast he thought they had been thrown at the same time. He looked up, Crimson was standing where he left him, his hand held out in a position after a throw.

Faintly, he felt something wet at the sides of his neck, and wiped his finger on it, finding red. He looked behind him to see his four shurikens embedded in a tree behind him.

"Like I said, I'm not implying anything. And of course, you have to put in the fact that your sharingan can't get past my clothes. And to be honest, the majority of your clan seems completely helpless without the advantages of your bloodline. Is that not proof enough of which clan is greater?" Crimson pointed out with relish.

Itachi slowly stood up, newfound respect for the stranger. "I have never heard of the Avedon Clan."

Crimson seemed amused. "Of course you haven't, no one knows about us unless we want them to. And in the first place, my family isn't from this continent. And even if we were, we are quite adept at keeping ourselves hidden." He hid the fact that they weren't even from this universe. "So consider yourself among the lucky ones. Not just anyone gets to know even just our name."

"So why are you here, if your family isn't from this continent? Why did you move?" Itachi asked in a curious tone.

Crimson chuckled. "No. We didn't move. A botched invention of one of my friends ended up transporting me, two of my siblings and a cousin, and several others here. Sort of like what would happen if you messed up a jutsu here, only a lot more dramatic." He looked up at the sky, as a breeze swept across the clearing. "Although...it might have actually been a blessing in disguise. There wasn't anything that exciting left from where we came from after the war. And the results of our entrance into the Elemental Countries will bring many changes to this world. Exciting changes."

He locked his gaze upon Itachi's. "Changes that many ninja will not live from. Itachi...if you wish to survive in this new era, you will need more than all the skills and power your clan has to offer. I can teach you everything you will need." He picked up the basket and slowly walked backwards, stepping into the shade, and Itachi could already see his form fluctuating; getting harder to see, such was his skill in becoming unseen. "Believe me when I say that the price is a viable one. One you will gladly pay and hardly have to work to pay for. If you are interested and wish to accept my offer, come to my shop tomorrow. But do not let anyone see you. There, we shall discuss the matter."

He faded into the foliage until only startling amethyst eyes were visible, and after a moment, even that was gone too. Itachi stared after the space where his eyes had once been, but he had completely disappeared.

He slowly sheathed his ninjato and returned his shuriken to his pouch, Crimson's words repeating themselves in his head like a foretelling of doom.

'_The results of our entrance into the Elemental Countries will bring many changes to this world. Exciting changes. Changes that many ninja will not live from. Itachi...if you wish to survive in this new era, you will need more than all the skills and power your clan has to offer. I can teach you everything you will need.'_

Death? The death of many of the elemental country's ninjas? Preposterous!

And yet, he couldn't help but shudder at his words, and at how he had said it. It wasn't a guess, nor a prophecy. No, it was a statement of fact.

He glanced back, where his house would be, where his parents and little brother were. Another breeze came, and with it, came a strange feeling.

'_Winds of Change'_ He thought as the gust brushed his hair. Yes, a change was coming, and he would do everything in his might to survive and keep Sasuke safe. He was in no way afraid of treachery from Crimson. He could have damn well done what he wanted to a while back. He was honest.

And besides, he was curious Dammit! A member of such a powerful clan doesn't just pop up out of nowhere.

Yes, he would see him...his soon-to-be sensei.

**[Flashback End]**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So...where are we going to...discuss the matter?" Itachi repeated the words from yesterday.

Crimson just gestured for him to continue up the spiraling stairs behind the door. Frowning, Itachi obeyed until they were on the second floor, where Crimson was standing expectantly. "What now?"

Crimson smiled. "Doorway" As soon as the words left his lips, an open wooden door appeared on the floor...below his feet, and he fell an instant after it materialized. Itachi's jaw dropped, before quickly rushing over and looking at the doorway. Which, surprisingly, only showed the floor it was on top of.

A hand suddenly sprouted from said floor, grabbed his foot and hauled him in. He was too overtaken by surprise to resist. He fell, just like Crimson, although a lot less gracefully, onto a hard, smooth, glowing-

He sprang up and looked around him, already in a defensive position.

He was on the ocean. On because a large square expanse of glowing amethyst energy kept them in the air.

"H-how?" He gasped.

"The teleportation spell? It was a simple manipulation of space while the actual door was a magical construct. As for this platform, it is but a molding of raw magical energy." Crimson replied.

Itachi was still flabbergasted, unable to understand all of these new terms.

Crimson noticed this. "Magic is my energy. Similar to your chakra, yet different." He made a gesture with his hands and two mounds formed from the lavender energy, their color and texture changing until there were two soft red couches. He sat down. "I would prefer it if you would just sit down. It's easier talking that way." Itachi complied.

"I'm surprised you came." Crimson started. "I would have expected you to be more doubtful."

"I was, still am, but you seemed so sure of yourself with that prediction. And if the clan IS as lousy as you say, then how did you sneak past me? I'm also quite curious, and since all of those are quite interesting, I just couldn't resist." Itachi admitted.

Crimson's lips curved upwards into a slight smile. "I'll accept that. Now, any questions you might have before we make it official?"

Itachi was quick to take advantage of the offer. "First off, where are we?"

"Somewhere in the southeastern oceans."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at the distance but otherwise remained impassive. "How powerful exactly are your friends?"

His smile shifted into a full-blown grin for a second before vanishing. "Depends. Our powers are sometimes as different as night is to day, and each has his or her own specialty. But I can say this; any one of them can take on several Kages at their current level."

Now THAT made Itachi blink. Several times actually. "So they ARE indeed powerful. What about you?"

The Avedon's smirk turned nostalgic. "As of now?...I can destroy and kill everyone in an entire Hidden Village with enough information and preparations."

Itachi had a hard time believing it with how casually it was said, but he had a feeling Crimson was actually hiding what he could truly do. "Very well. Why exactly did you choose to help me?"

Crimson bent over from his couch. "A combination of many things that caught my interest. One: Out of a clan of second-rate ingrates, you have shown talent beyond anyone else I have seen in this world so far, a diamond in the mud so to speak. Two: You aren't an arrogant bastard; you accept your mistakes and take good advice when you get it. You're confident in your skills, but not overconfident, and you don't rely on your bloodline limit like the rest of your clan. Three: You remind me of myself." His eyes got a faraway look in them, seeing something else and not Itachi.

Thankfully, it was gone after a few seconds and he continued. "You love your brother. You would die for him just as I would die for my siblings. You are burdened by your clan's expectations, just like me when I showed promise beyond anyone else in my family's history." He heaved a sigh, as if he as supporting a heavy weight. "Despite how much I wish it, I can not help everyone in this world. And as cruel as it sounds, many people in the world do not matter. You are one of those that do, so I took advantage of it."

He leaned back, staring into the sky. "I told you yesterday, didn't I, that there wasn't anything exciting left in our home after a war. We seek entertainment, and what better way to do that without getting injured ourselves by passing down our skills to people in this place and watching the results? Our skills are too great to NOT be used, and our students would no doubt make life interesting in this continent, though explosive should probably be the term used instead." He studied Itachi's shocked face at the news. "You are a genius, and would no doubt be able to stand against their own apprentices if allowed to mature on your own, imagine what you could achieve with training from me. THAT is the reason for choosing you." He finished.

Itachi was stunned. Crimson was basically training him for...entertainment?! The hell?! He was just about to say his opinion on the matter to Crimson when a he heard the sound of the waves increase in volume. He looked at the ocean and was shocked to see something rising from the depths. A titanic shape as large as a boss summon rose from the sea, a gigantic mix between a sea serpent and a crocodile with flippers, and it was heading straight for them. He turned to Crimson. "Quick! How do we escape?"

The Avedon chuckled, seemingly unperturbed from their impending doom. "Hmm, it's been quite a while since a sea monster tried to kill me. Very well. I shall have some entertainment while simultaneously giving you a glimpse of my abilities. I shan't disappoint." He stood up, and calmly walked over to the edge of the platform, facing the monster.

His eyes narrowed and started glowing in purple energy. "Allow me to show you true power, beast." He raised his right hand to the heavens; two fingers outstretched, and Itachi, with his sharingan, barely managed to see the pulse of energy that emanated from his two fingers to the sky. Then, visible to the naked eye, a humungous violet pentagram formed in the sky, humming with pent up energy.

Something wordless, an ancient sound rumbled from his throat, and Itachi _felt _rather than heard words of something alien..._magic_...before he uttered them in a declaration of power, a proclamation of death.

"**Meteor Strike."**

A meteor. An honest-to-goodness meteor fell from the pentagram itself, its molten surface ignited upon contact with oxygen,** (1)** burning with fire whose heat he felt even from the distance. Despite all this though, there was nearly no noise as it plummeted. Although it was another matter when it collided with the surface of the sea.

The sea monster looked up just in time to meet the mountain of burning rock, and a crash, a thunderous crash resounded throughout the seas as if a thousand thunderbolts had come into existence in a single instant.

Great gouts of water were thrown into the air, each as high or higher than the Hokage Tower itself, threatening to take them both from the floating platform.

Crimson waved a hand. "Firewall" A single word, a single word was all it took for an even larger wall of fire to appear, burning white-hot, hot enough to turn the tsunami into steam upon contact with the flames, and leaving them unharmed.

After a few minutes of turbulence, the sea calmed once again, and it was as if nothing had happened. The meteor was sinking into the bottom of the ocean, the sea monster's battered body with it. Frightening, how quickly things that seemed to matter so much could disappear so quickly.

Crimson made another gesture, and the wall of fire disappeared.

Itachi's legs shook, and sweat fell down his forehead. Was it from fear? Excitement? Probably a combination of both.

So this...was power. No wonder. For beings who wielded power such as this in their hands, even the greatest shinobi would seem like worthless cattle to them.

Crimson took a deep breath, and smiled. "Ahh, it's been so long since I did that. I thought I'd never get a chance." He turned back to Itachi. "Do you understand now? The difference between my comrades and your people? Regardless of reason, you DO need my help. Without me, you might be able to take on the weaker successors but the greater ones will be well beyond your league. You need my tutelage if you are to survive this new era, or better yet, thrive in it."

Itachi nodded dumbly, and Crimson extended a hand. "You'll need power, power I can give to you at a simple price of making this place as interesting as you can. As I've said before, we seek entertainment, you just have to make sure we get it. Do you accept the deal?"

The young chuunin looked at the offered hand, before grasping it with sure hands. "I do."

Crimson smiled, a heartfelt one. "Good."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**[9 days later]**

"Man, I'm so bored. Aren't there any interesting people coming in?" Kotetsu, the chuunin at the gate whined.

"Oh shut up. It's peacetime, who would be coming into the village besides ninja we already know, civilians, and villagers from towns that want to try their luck?" His partner, Izumo, chastised him.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. Dammit, I wish I had passed the jounin exams! If I did, I would probably be in an interesting mission and not getting bored outta my head in this shack. *sigh* I wish something interesting would happened." Kotetsu said.

Which probably wasn't a good idea to do.

Fate has a way of using your own words against you.

The voice of a young girl, a sweet falsetto and with an innocent air broke them from their conversation. "Hmm, so THIS is the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Doesn't look hidden to me. Aw well! Time to start looking for him!"

They blinked, before looking at the source.

It a small girl at about 4'1, with a cute heart-shaped face, lively red eyes, dark, yet vibrant violet hair that reached nearly to her ankles, and pale skin that reminded them of someone, though the image avoided their grasp. She was wearing a very dark (almost black) purple yukata with red linings and floral designs, a bright purple obi/sash with a silver butterfly brooch in it, and a pair of simple wooden sandals. Beside her was a small wolfhound puppy, with neatly-trimmed glossy black fur. It had a red leather collar with a purple symbol that brought a tingle of recognition. A tingle, nothing more.

But what caught their attention though, were the two katanas strapped to her back in an X by the obi. The handles were ten inches long and had a simple criss-crossing design of red and purple. The blades of the katanas were each three feet and eight inches long and were in a completely black sheath. The length made them taller than her, and they very nearly touched the ground.

May Destiny have mercy on this village for Sally Avedon has come.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

**Explanations:**

**(1) The meteor strike is a spell that can be divided into several steps. First is raising your hand to the air in a closed position with your first two fingers straight out. You will then send out a 'pulse' of sorts to outer space. Basically, you're using a magical radar and scanning the available meteors. You choose one, make a portal somewhere in its trajectory and watch your target get squashed by a meteor. **

**Crimson chose a meteor that was near a star, and so, was REALLY FRIGGIN HOT. However, ordinary fire needs oxygen to burn(fires like Hellfire or Magical fires don't need oxygen) so it wasn't burning. So it ignited upon entrance into the atmosphere since it suddenly came into contact with oxygen.**

******Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Aaaaand...it's done!**

**Oh yeah! I just LOVED that scene where Crim made the meteor fall on the sea monster! And don't say anything about sea monsters not existing. If they've got giant foxes and toads, then they've got sea monsters.**

**Anyway, please review. And I PROMISE, the next chapter is gonna be FULL of action. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**I have one thing to say:...OH MY EFFIN GOD! SALLY IS HERE! Quick! Everyone, to the bunker!...*looks around and notices that he's the only one around* riiight...ME! To the bunker! *goes into the bunker***

**P.S. Crim will be KICKING ASS in this chapter.**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

"Hmm, so THIS is the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Doesn't look hidden to me. Aw well! Time to start looking for him!" Sally Avedon proclaimed with glee, starting to walk deeper into the village.

"H-hey wait! You're supposed to check in first! And where are your parents anyway?" Izumo protested as he grabbed the girl's arm.

Bad idea.

Sally blinked, staring at the offending hand. "Are you touching me...without my permission?" She asked in a strange tone, one that caught the two chuunin's interest.

"I'm sorry about that kid, but you're probably just lost. Don't worry, we'll make sure you're fine until your parents get you."

The wording was an even worse idea.

Sally looked at the hand, at his face, his hand, then his face again...

"EEP! Pedophile! Bucky! Sick'm!" She screamed.

The little black wolfhound puppy suddenly jumped, hitting him on the chest before he could say anything. Yet, despite Bucky being a small ten-inch long puppy, his blow sent Izumo flying away, his breath forced out of his lungs and a bad bruise forming, before he crashed into a house, breaking the wooden wall.

Kotetsu stared, but only for a few moments only before quickly unsealing his giant-conch-shell-on-a-stick weapon. A child whose pet could do THAT was more than enough of a threat to justify the use of his weapon. "I don't know who you are, but you're definitely not a little harmless girl."

Sally chuckled, the sound so much like what one would expect from a child frolicking in happiness, he actually believed for a second that she really was an ordinary child. But it passed. She wiped a tear from her eye before smiling at the chuunin. "You're wrong sir! I AM a little girl! Isn't it obvious?" she asked, gesturing to herself "although the harmless part is debatable. I'm only harmless to those that doesn't do anything to bother me. Your friend touched me inappropriately, and he was probably a pedophile who wanted to rape me! It was self-defense!" She protested.

Then, "Also, you should put that big dangerous weapon away from impressionable kids. They might develop into crazy, murderous killers one day. Like my brother!"

Kotetsu honestly didn't know what to say.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go and look for my _other_ brother."

That made him think. "Wait! You have a brother?" If she did, then they might be able to send out a notice for him and get this over with.

She smiled. "Yup! Black hair, purple eyes, pale, and wears this coat with a black symbol like this!" She confirmed, picking up Bucky by the shoulders and showing the symbol on his collar.

Kotetsu frowned at the symbol. It seemed familiar, yet he couldn't remember.

This didn't go unnoticed by Sally, who knew exactly what was happening. "Lemme guess, it seems familiar, yet you can't seem to remember it, right?" He nodded, and Sally pumped her fist into the air, jumping with joy. "Yes! He's here! He wouldn't be seen if he wasn't gonna stay! Yes! Now come on Bucky! Crim's in here and he isn't getting away!" The dog barked in agreement with his master.

Kotetsu didn't know much about her, but it was pretty obvious letting her go inside was a bad idea, so he wasn't going to let that happen any time soon. "Sorry kid, but this is for the best." He apologized prematurely before charging at her with his weapon.

Sally turned towards him and tilted her head in a confused fashion. "You REALLY didn't learn anything from your friend didn't you? Aw well!" She said to herself as she grabbed his arm before he could swing it. She waggled her finger at him, as if chastising a child. "Naughty, naughty, mister. It's bad to hit little girls." She bent her left leg backwards for a kick. "Especially when it's a little girl that can take care of her own!" she finished when she brought her foot up with the speed of a bullet train...literally...to his balls...

There was a resounding crack, followed by scream of pure agony, silence...for several moments, then the thump of a body hitting the ground.

Her kick had been so powerful, she had sent him high enough into the air that it had taken eleven seconds before he was back on terra firma. Still, he wasn't getting up from that. And he DEFINITELY wasn't going to have any children.

She dusted her hands together, smiling at her handiwork. "Let that be a lesson to you mister!" She told the unconscious chuunin, before turning back to Konoha and running deeper into the village, Bucky by her side.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson wondered why the day seemed to be so perfect.

From the moment he had woken up, everything had gone as smoothly as possible.

Even as he had gone downstairs and started waiting on the desk for customers, which, surprisingly, was a lot more than usual. Not to mention all of them were easily bartered with, and bought a lot from him. Everything was going incredibly well, up to now as he bartered with his seventh customer, one who knew what to buy and was buying a LOT without much trouble.

He gave a genuine smile as the guy left, and a quick spell sent his order to the location.

He leaned back on his chair, content.

"Maybe this is for all the trouble I've had in my life?" He chuckled. "Heck, with how this day's going, nothing will go wrong!"

He then felt it, a prickling in not just his skin, but the fringes of his mind and soul itself. It warned of something titanically grim in the very near future, today to be exact.

He knew what it was.

It was the Lacroan Sixth Sense. An inborn trait available to all Lacroans.

It was more than just a mere ability, however. It was a Destiny-given power, completely, and utterly infallible. An incredible combination of foresight and instinct. It is a power that gives them warnings of what is to happen and what to do, both of which are extremely advantageous.

If it told him something bad was going to happen, then something bad WAS going to happen.

After all, the Lacroan Sixth Sense is never wrong.

Oh, why did he have to jinx it?!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anko scowled at her target: a little girl with purple hair and red eyes in a black kimono and a puppy. A little girl and a puppy. And she was losing them!

She had to wonder, how did her day turn into this again?

Ah, of course. It had all gone normally, up until she had gone to a dango stand and started eating. Then that little shit suddenly popped up with a picture and started asking everyone if they had seen the chap. Then this guy said; "Yeah, I've seen him. He's the friend of that snake-whore over there. Darn bastard. He should never have gone here. Scum of scum if there ever was one."

In all honesty, one could not expect the little girl to suddenly punch into his chest and literally rip out his heart and show it to him while it was still beating. "NEVER...EVER, say anything bad about my brother again you putrid waste of flesh."

She recognized that man as one of those that pretty much hated her and anyone that so much as didn't give her a glare, with his guts. While she didn't mind his death, as a Konoha shinobi, she had a duty to protect its citizens from harm, so as much as she hated to do it, she had to take down this little girl, if she could be called as such.

Now, while ripping out the man's heart proved that the kid wasn't a pushover, she didn't think the kid was good enough to DODGE ALL OF HER DAMN ATTACKS!

She had started with a shunshin to appear behind the girl, and then tried to disable her. Keyword: Tried. The kid had insanely good reflexes, and had ducked and rolled away from her before springing into a jump and landing on a canopy. "Whoa! Almost got me there miss! By the way, have you seen thi-"

She didn't get to finish that sentence when she had to duck to avoid a kunai(one of Crimson's make) that nearly took her head. She blinked several times, looking first at the kunai then her, then back again. "You almost got me there!" she exclaimed.

Anko scowled. "A pity I didn't. Now get down here so I can catch you and this won't get ugly." She had threatened.

The little shit grinned brightly. "OOH! So it's a game then!" She jumped from the awning and landed on the roof of a wooden snack bar. "Well, you better catch me then if you don't wanna lose! Bucky!" Obediently, the dog had jumped into her arms, before the girl started running away with speed on par with an experienced jounin.

For a second, she had been gaping at the girl, but she shook off her surprise and ran after her, summoning up the thrown kunai back with a thought and calling her allies for a breach in security. If this little shit turns out to be too much trouble, she'd be tempted to go all out, damn the consequences.

As of the present moment, she was in the market district, and the girl somehow managed to gain enough ground to ask someone else for info about the guy in the picture. The merchant was about to say that he didn't even remember him when she threw three kunai, all three set to disable, though her understanding of disable was: anything goes so long as he/she's alive.

The girl dodged all three, but the merchant ended up stuck to the wall, the blades pinning him to it. The kid taunted her with a grin. "Can't catch me old woman!" Then proceeded to crack open several containers of different fruits, causing pandemonium in the market.

After a lot of swearing, effort, and more swearing on her part, she had managed to get past the chaos and get back on the trail of the elusive little girl, not to mention finding some reinforcements in Kurenai Yuuhi, and three ANBU; Rat, Parrot, and Cat.(Uzuki Yuugao)

"So let me get this straight, a little girl suddenly pops up, asks about some guy, some bastard insults the guy, then she rips out his heart then runs away when you try to kill her?" The Genjutsu Mistress asked. Anko nodded.

"Well that's interesting. Mind if I join?" A calm voice asked them, and they turned their heads to see Itachi Uchiha keeping up with them. Anko gave another nod. Any help was fine, especially one from the promising chuunin, whom she had found out was a friend of sorts to Crimson.

"Let me clarify a few things first. When the man was asked whether he had seen the person in the picture, he said that the man was a friend of yours. Now, I know this might seem rude, but you're not exactly the most well-liked person here, and she killed for the insult because he was her brother. Any of your male friends have a psycho sister?" Itachi pointed out, causing Anko to stare at him as she considered the possibilities.

"You don't think...?" She started, but Itachi's grim face confirmed it.

"Crap."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a known fact that women hated perverts.

Perverts often molested, spied on, and stole their underwear, so it was understandable. Another fact was that after several thousand years of living with perverts, all females had developed the instinct to hate pretty much any kind of perversion at will.

Which was why Sally had gone to a complete stop when she saw Hatake Kakashi walking around reading smut...in public...in clear view of impressionable children.

She had given a war-cry; which sounded more like a cute "Yah!" than anything because of her current stature, and gave the white-haired man a flying kick to the head that was anything but cute and harmless.

"You pervert! Reading in porn in public in front of impressionable children? How dare you! Because of that, I shall burn this damned book and sick my loyal canine on you. Bucky, sick'm!" The dog gave a bark and charged the surprised jounin, headbutting him on the stomach and sending him crashing into a building.

Kakashi shook his head to get rid of the stars in his eyes and looked upon a horrible scene.

Sally was burning his Icha Icha with a black and red fire from her fingertip...slowly.

He could practically hear the screams of his beloved book as it slowly burned to death, until only ashes remained. He stood, dumbfounded.

It was then that Sally felt an intense level of killing intent directed at her and blinked cutely, turning to the source; the pervert whose book she had burned. She glanced in another direction to see her old pursuers catching up and had a brilliant idea.

She stuck her tongue out at both of them. "Come on slowpokes! You'll never catch me with that speed!"

The result was for Anko and her troupe to go faster and Kakashi to try to kill her with a raikiri. Her reflexes went on autopilot and made her bend to the side, making Kakashi miss and hit a fruit stand instead. She blinked at the sheer speed of it and at the damage it caused. "Whoa! That might have actually hit me!" she grinned with delight. "Awesome!" and proceeded to run away again, this time with the lethal Son of the White Fang added to her hunters' ranks. Considering their new threat level, she would actually be preoccupied by them and ordered Bucky to separate from her and look for Crimson.

The chase was on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson frowned as he felt something vaguely familiar at the fringes of his senses.

It seemed a bit...unnatural.

But that was too general. Many of his comrades had energy that felt like this, and it was too weak and vague to pinpoint the source.

He would have to wait for more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sally entered a park surrounded by trees, intending to enter said plantlife and make it even harder for her pursuers to catch her.

She screeched to halt just as several mud walls rose from the earth and blocked her way. She blinked at the new structures before glancing at the advancing ninjas, who were close enough to use throwing weapons and were happily making use of that fact. She dodged them, some almost catching her before proceeding to climb up the structure.

She was discouraged from this by a ninjato-wielding Itachi, who nearly cut her fingers off when he sprung at her from on top of a wall. "Whoa!" she cried out as she fell to the ground, but had enough thought to roll into a ball to lessen the impact and springing away from him. Unfortunately, he had bought enough time for the others to catch up, and were now approaching slowly, making no room for mistakes.

"Like I said, give up kid, and we won't have to kill you." Anko repeated, bringing out a kunai.

Sally responded with a; "Like hell I'd give up!"

Anko smiled maliciously. "Just the answer I was looking for."

Sally barely managed to dodge the first volley of shuriken and kunai. But it didn't stop at that. In fact, it didn't stop at all. It was a virtual rain of blades as Anko started launching her weapons as fast as she could recall them. The exceedingly tiny chakra drain was too small to make her worry. Even more, the others joined in with their own weapons and jutsu, and it took all Sally had to keep anything from hitting her.

For a while that is.

After sidestepping a water bullet, pirouetting over a wind blade, ducking to avoid a fireball, and all the while avoiding a constant stream of kunai and shuriken, she got caught in a mud flow, which hardened and kept her immobilized on the ground. She could have broken out of it in a few seconds, but that was time she didn't have.

Seven kunai and eleven shuriken hit her; though only those from Anko penetrated her skin, and another goukakyou from Itachi sent her crashing into the mud wall. Anko grinned at their handiwork, and gestured for the others to take her out.

The Rat and Parrot obeyed, but just as they were about lift her limp body up, she suddenly sprang up and wrenched one of the kunai embedded in her stomach and gutted one of them, before grabbing a shuriken and throwing it dead-center on the other ANBU's throat. Her gaze shifted to the kunai, and Anko quickly recalled it, but Sally had seen it; the symbol on the hilt.

Her lips shifted ever so slowly upwards, into a smile that looked so _wrong_ on a little girl's body. Her stare moved to Anko, and they narrowed menacingly.

"So...considering the fact that you have these weapons, it looks like I'd have to take you seriously if I don't want to get killed." She closed her eyes, and a feeling of hopelessness washed over the five remaining ninjas as the air heated up.

The fire that remained from the goukakyou burned hotter, but not brighter, it actually seemed as if it was burning the light away, and despite the time being in the middle of the day and in open sight of the sun, it felt darker already, an oppressively hot darkness.

"W-what's happening?" Anko muttered as the fires changed color into red and black and grew into tremendous size and blazed around the girl, covering her in a tornado of the unholy flames.

Suddenly, the tornado exploded, reaching into the heavens themselves.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson stopped what he was doing and looked up, understanding what his sixth sense had warned him of. "Oh shit."

"Sally..." He muttered, knowing full well what her presence meant.

He could avoid her, he knew. He could have, and would have, if he hadn't felt the auras around her.

He stood up immediately and went out, flipping the 'open' sign backwards, showing a 'closed' sign.

"Oh crap." He clenched his fists and cast a tracking spell, his speed increasing with each step as he slowly, but surely went into a practiced routine he had trained nearly to a subconscious level. "Dead or with your mind completely and utterly broken. I hope I get there soon enough before any of those happens Itachi, or worse." He whispered, disappearing from everyone's sights, more invisible than a ghost...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bucky barked happily when sensed his mistress transforming. If she needed to transform, then she would need his help too.

And with that, Bucky ran back to her direction, his form burning in the same unearthly fire that covered his mistress.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She had changed.

She was now at about 5'7, with her purple hair getting darker.

Her body...to put it lightly, was the epitome of perfection, with an unnatural beauty not of this world.

Finely honed and muscled, and yet not too much to prove unattractive; just right to improve her image, her figure was everything to be desired, absolutely perfect with the treasured 'hourglass figure' that many women wanted, with large, but not overly large and firm breasts, long smooth legs, and completely unblemished skin.

Very dark (nearly black) purple knee-high high-heeled leather boots with three leather straps adorned her feet. The only piece of clothing she had other than her modified battle kimono...if it could be called as such.

It was the same color as her boots, and its edges were lined with the color of blood, with the floral designs changing to a motif that resembled her hellish flames and markings that she couldn't decipher, yet, brought dread to her.

The kimono's front opened up at the neck, cutting VERY close to revealing her breasts, and closing up just above her navel. The sleeves reached to her wrists and were very loose and the skirt of the kimono was pretty much just eight paper-thin wide strips of cloth that reached to her legs, swaying with each step and giving a tantalizing view of her thighs and what lay inside. It had an open back, and tattooed on her backside, was the exact same symbol on Crimson's weapons and trenchcoat, black as night and strikingly detailed.

The obi's color had changed into a combination of black and red, with a pattern much like her hellish flames, and only the butterfly brooch and the katanas had remained the same, the blades kept in place by the obi and in an X formation.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, her long lashes fluttering in the stiff breeze, red eyes inhumanly so.

Pouty, full lips that were such a stunning red lips curved ever so slightly upwards, and she spoke, her voice hypnotic.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sally Avedon, of the Assassin Branch."

Her power, it was like a weight upon their shoulders, a mountain of power, so great, it was nearly a material thing.

By now, all of them knew that this was CERTAINLY a greater threat than just some random Nin.

Anko willed herself to move and glared back at the Avedon female.

Sally laughed, a beautiful sound. She smiled coyly at her. "Go all out. You'll need to do so if you wish to survive."

Anko gritted her teeth at the situation as she pulled out two kunai and channeled chakra into them.

They flared to life, a soft blue glow encompassing the blades and giving them an extra inch and a half of length.

It was high-time she found out how strong the weapons really were.

Sally raised an eyebrow. "Is that all? I really do hope this'll be more than a challenge."

Anko scowled. "Oh, it'll be more than just a challenge. Kurenai, you might want to stand back for a bit and use some genjutsu on her when you can. You're not suited to close combat. You three, go at her from all sides. Let's go." The others nodded and charged.

Sally smiled eerily, before throwing a fireball at her feet, sending up a large plume of smoke. They stopped their charge.

Yuugao barely glimpsed the blur that landed behind her, and brought up her ninjato with both a hands, and a horrible grating sound ensued as the steel struggled against Sally's nails. She nearly gasped in shock at the long gash marks on the blade, which had been able to cut through concrete unscathed.

Sally breathed deeply into one ear, her body entangled with hers all of a sudden, vibrating with pent-up desire. "A fine blade, but ultimately inferior." Sally extended a tongue, and took a sensual lick along the back of her ear, giving out something between a purr and a moan of pleasure. "You're sweet, little kitten. Makes me want to..." She traced a line along Cat's neck, and the ANBU shuddered with pleasure.

"Eat you up." She finished, before her muscles coiled and she disentangled herself from The ANBU, Itachi's blade nearly taking her head off when she sprang away.

She whistled. "Fast, very fast. And that blade of yours isn't an ordinary one. You're cute you know. Maybe I'll be interested in a few years. Would you mind waiting until that time?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. "Jeezus, not another one of those sexually inactive freaks. The dimensional universe has enough of them." She complained, before suddenly picking up a kunai and blocking a strike from Anko's own. It did not go unnoticed that the ordinary kunai's metal was had been fractured and was gouged deeply from Anko's special ones. She eyed the blades warily. "The blade's stronger than I thought."

Anko didn't reply, instead, putting more force into the deadlock and breaking the damaged blade, thrusting at Sally's heart.

The Avedon, in a display of flexibility, bent backwards, until her head was nearly touching the ground, avoiding the fatal strike. She put her palms on the ground and mule-kicked Anko, who managed to bring up her kunais to block, though it still managed to send her back several feet.

Before she could bend back up, she felt an illusion surround her, and felt the red-eyed ninja appear behind her, intent on cutting her throat. She would have none of that as she went into a practiced routine, spinning her legs like a wheel and catching the genjutsu mistress on the gut, throwing her away with the force of the kick. She used the momentum from the move to get back on her feet, crouching like a poised hunter, the illusion dispelled.

She sprang away, and Kakashi crashed into her former position with a lightning blade. She swung her arm in an arc, creating a crescent of black and red fire that nearly hit the jounin, if it wasn't for kawarimi, he would be toast.

She spun backwards on her feet, her palms clapping across a blade that nearly reached her throat. "Back for more?" She asked, as Yugao tried to force the blade farther.

Sally grinned, as her fingers curled around the blade and tightened. The metal gave, breaking into tiny shards in front of its shocked wielder.

Fortunately, Itachi once again interrupted her, breathing a goukakyou on her. She dispelled it with her own ball of fire, but it was enough for the ANBU to escape. She frowned at that. "Now that was rude. You've already butt in twice. I won't forgive a third time, no matter how cute you are."

Itachi didn't reply, instead, rushing at her, his blade poised to strike, sharingan eyes spinning. She batted it off-course with an arm, sending it off course, before raising a foot and bringing it down on his feet.

Only a reflexive backstep prevented him from being crippled, as her kick shattered the ground she hit.

He did a 180, setting his blade on a course for her neck. She ducked, then sunk her hand into his stomach, reaching into the insides, a fatal strike. She smirked. "You lose."

Itachi's expression didn't change despite his grievous wound. "Not at all. **Bunshin Daibakuha**."

The clone exploded, sending her flying, crashing to the ground several meters away. "Oww." She winced, but immediately tucked into a roll when a lightning bolt from Kakashi nearly hit her. She prepared to give a retaliatory fireball but her senses became disoriented and harder to understand; an illusion from the black-haired female.

She focused her will, a tidal wave of sheer mental force, and crushed the illusion, much to the surprise of the Genjutsu Mistress, who had to dodge a fireball.

Once again, she gathered energy into her palms and dispelled another goukakyou from Kakashi, but nearly got hit by a water bullet from Cat. "Hmm, so you were the one throwing around all that water." The ANBU replied by sending more water bullets at her, in tandem with Kakashi who produced half a dozen fireballs, distracting her for a bit, nearly allowing Anko to get a good shot in.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Itachi frowned.

This was a bad situation. No, it was a disastrous situation. None of them just knew how bad it was.

Anko was basing Sally's prowess on what she had so far seen from Crimson, who had merely given her a glimpse of what he could truly do. Weapon-making was not it.

She did not know that whoever she was facing could very well burn the village to the ground if she had truly wanted to.

They would need the Hokage if they wanted even a closing chance.

He turned to Kurenai, who was still reeling from the shattered illusion. "I know this might seem rude, but I don't think you'll be of much use here."

The kunoichi scowled at him.

He continued regardless. "She seems immune to genjutsu, and your skills are completely dependent on it. You would be more helpful of you can manage to get the Hokage to aid us."

Kurenai gave it a few moments of thought, before nodding in agreement and disappearing in a shunshin.

Hopefully, that just might give them enough of a chance to subdue her.

Hopefully.

Oh, how he-

...

...

Jeezus! He was already starting to think like his sensei.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anko dodged a sweeping chop, then stabbed at Sally's midsection, a move which was deflected by the Avedon's somersault from which Anko had to backpedal from to avoid being hit by the rising feet. She calculated where her opponent would land and threw several shuriken, diving in and reaching the woman just as she finished deflecting the projectiles.

Sally dodged Anko's strike, a grin on her face, obviously enjoying the fight. She rolled to the side and ended up in a spinning handstand, keeping Anko at bay with rapid kicks. Her rotation winded down, shifting into a move to get herself back on her feet, the grin still on her face. "Almost got me there."

Anko scoffed. "Just you wait, I WILL hit you." She swiftly raised her arm and snakes shot out with disturbing speed at Sally. Simultaneously, Cat used one of the few earth jutsus that she knew and sent several spikes of earth at Sally from behind while Kakashi used his last raikiri.

The woman's smile widened as she quickly picked up two undamaged kunai, and muttered a single word; **"Corruption."**

Unearthly energy gathered around her.

A dank and impure force, an affront to nature that shouldn't exist, one that sent a primal shiver through their spines as veins of sickly green and black energy grew throughout the weapons, their shape twisting into a vague resemblance of a sword.

It had all happened in an instant, and by then, she had twin obsidian swords with veins of pulsing green throughout their forms, each nearly four feet long.

She rent the snakes apart, their corpses turning into mangled, rapidly rotting corpses, before turning to the earth spikes, cleaving them to bits.

She smiled at their horrified expressions, the sick energy clearly repulsive to them. "Playtime's over. I would have wanted it to last longer, but I have a person to find." She stabbed one sword into the ground and her hand moved faster than a striking cobra to the side of her head; burning in her strange fire all the while, blocking an obviously fatal strike from Kakashi's raikiri barehanded, bringing out gasps from the other Konoha nin and wide, shocked eyes from the copy nin.

Wasn't Kakashi's raikiri unblockable?

Apparently not, if this woman could.

Her foot snapped upwards, a pale blur too fast for even his sharingan eye to predict, and connected with the side of his head. He felt himself rocketing away, a crash, and his world went black after that.

Yuugao was next, but before she could do anything, Anko had already engaged her in close-combat, her blades a flash of steel as she tried to force an offensive.

Sally was just as fast if not faster, and each of he hits nearly caused Anko to drop her weapons from the sheer numbing force of the blows.

She couldn't keep up when Sally kicked it up a notch, seemingly being hit forty-five times simultaneously from different angles.

Thankfully, Sally had only used the flat of the blades for this, and she fell like a sack of potatoes.

Yuugao couldn't dodge when Sally appeared behind her, blades slicing an arc in the air.

Itachi blocked the strikes, barely holding his ground.

Sally frowned. "I told you I won't forgive a third time, and I keep my promises."

She lashed out, and Itachi barely dodged the strike, the blade millimeters from his face, and there was already one coming after it, one he couldn't dodge. Kawarimi. Phew, that was close.

He would have preferred to wait a little longer in his hiding spot but Sally had already started throwing crescents of that green energy at him. He jumped out from behind a wide tree and threw several shuriken in rapid succession, running around the edges of the treelife and making himself as small a target as possible.

This time, Sally stabbed both swords on the ground, leaving both her hands free to grab a shuriken in each hand, avoiding the others. She grinned.

"**Corruption"** She spoke the words again, and the two shuriken morphed into nightmare versions of the Fuuma shuriken. Only they had eight blades. And they were as tall as Sally herself.

Damn.

She threw them at him, and they were FAST!

He rolled to the side, avoiding one, but Sally somehow managed to predict where he would go to, and had thrown it in such a way, that it would curve its trajectory to where he was right now. He tried to stop or reverse his tumble, but he was too slow...

A black staff batted the Fuuma shuriken away.

The Hokage glared fiercely at Sally, in full battle armor and Enma the Monkey King in staff form in his hands. "I do not know who you are, but you have just committed grievous offenses to the Village of Konoha, and so, must be put down..." His voice lowered into a threatening tone, his mere killing intent dwarfing everyone's own, showing EXACTLY why he was Hokage. "...immediately." He finished gravely.

Sally chuckled. "Took you long enough." She pulled her morphed katanas from the ground and settled into a stance, her left blade on the front while her right was behind her in a reverse grip. "Bring it on."

"Attack." The Sarutobi ordered the two dozen ANBU with him, and the masked ninjas charged, throwing a multitude of elemental jutsu at their enemy.

Fireballs and spikes of stone, lightning bolts and blades of wind, torrents of water and rivers of mud were sent at the enemy, aimed to kill.

Sally weaved through the attacks like a dancer, her body moving in subtle and some not-so-subtle ways as she did so, grinning all the while. One could not expect to dodge such a multitude of attacks so easily though, and she was put directly on the path of several blades of wind. She swung her blades, creating more of the corrupted crescents of energy to dispel the wind blades.

Finally clear of the sea of jutsu, she charged, and the ANBU met her head-on, intent on overwhelming her with numbers. She cut through their blades as easily as she cut through their flesh, and after a mere ten seconds, half a dozen lay dead or dying, and the others had immediately backed up.

She smirked. "Sending such minor pawns after a predator? You severely underestimate me."

The Hokage's eyes narrowed into slits, before he slammed the staff to the ground and rapidly started doing hand seals.

The mud turned into the head of a dragon, and started spitting out mud projectiles, projectiles that he turned into lethal flaming bullets. This was followed by a dragon of water turned ever more lethal by the lightning that crackled around it. Lastly, he breathed multiple bullets of compressed air, which were trailed by fireballs which would no doubt ignite the spheres of combustible oxygen.

She dodged most of the flaming mud bullets, but was clipped on the shoulder by one, and the compressed air bullets caused enough of a concussive blast to send her in the general direction of the electrified water dragon. And it was quite impossible to keep yourself from being even slightly wet from such a downpour.

She dug her feet into the ground even as the dragon devoured her, and she screamed, electricity lanced throughout her body, frying her from the inside. Some of the ninja winced in pity.

Itachi didn't, especially when he saw her expression through the water thanks to the sharingan.

Her eyes had rolled almost to the back of her head, and her lips were upturned in an expression of orgasmic pleasure. When the water dragon ceased to exist, he could clearly hear her moans of pleasure, and he had to wonder if the fluids streaming down her thighs were water, or some other substance...

She was a masochist.

Aw fuck.

She twitched, before throwing her head back in a loud, lusty groan, then looking at them with a crazed look. "That...felt _**good**_." The way she said it unnerved him, it was almost as if she talking about sex or some other pleasurable venture.

The others were dumbfounded. Not many could survive an attack like that. After all, several tens of thousands of volts tend to kill most people, and she had even managed to take it on WITH the water dragon. The fact that she liked it did not go unnoticed either.

She straightened out, and held her blades tighter, her wild grin still on her face. "Care to do that again? I almost got an orgasm there, one more should do the trick."

Everyone twitched. It seemed that masochistic ninjas that could withstand A-rank attacks were VERY bad news.

An animalistic growl was heard and a dark shape bounded across the park, landing beside Sally, who smiled with actual joy this time. "Bucky!" she squealed, kneeling and hugging said animal.

He had changed.

The small puppy had turned into a fine specimen of canines. He was now five feet four inches long from his the tip of his tail to his snout. He was more wolfish now, and his fur had gotten a bit long and wilder. His collar was still the same, only larger, but there was a dark purple article of clothing that draped itself on his back and connected to his underside snugly. It had Sally's kimono's red fire motif and a larger silver version of the symbol on his collar on his back.

She rubbed the dog's ears. "So, did you find him?" The dog's ears drooped at this and it barked a few times, making Sally shake her head at it. "You shouldn't have. I can take care of my own." She looked back at the ninjas. "But then again, I DO need to keep the small fry occupied." She patted his head. "Go wild."

The ninjas tensed as the dog gave a bark, before disappearing utterly. No visible change or molding of chakra at all, just plain disappeared.

One went down when Bucky appeared, tearing out his throat, before the others went into action and tried to stop the obviously not normal canine.

Sarutobi didn't have time to help them when Sally rose out of his own shadow, mutated blades seemingly absorbing the light itself and started slicing at him. He barely managed to keep his arms attached.

Meanwhile, Itachi was fighting Bucky, and was having a HELL of a time of it, mainly due to the fact that Bucky was so much stronger and faster than most wolfhounds. He dodged, flipped, somersaulted, and plain ran away from every one of Bucky's attacks, knowing he didn't have a prayer of blocking them, as proven when a certain ANBU tried. He had ended up squished on a tree trunk. Itachi had no plans of being a stain on a tree trunk.

Another problem was that only his modified ninjato (courtesy of Crimson) penetrate the skin of said dog. Damn, he REALLY should have taken that offer with the returning kunais and shurikens. He didn't have time to contemplate this when Bucky bounded to the side, avoiding his fireball before opening his jaws, and he was looking at him.

Aw shit.

Bucky jumped, white fangs gleaming, razor-sharp claws itching for blood. There was no escape. He didn't think it would end like this.

A familiar voice shouted across the park. "Bucky, HEEL!"

Said canine landed on the ground, a few inches short of Itachi and, indeed, heeled, his tongue lolling to the side.

Sally immediately stared at the direction of the voice, not believing her luck.

Crimson Avedon strode towards them, his trenchcoat fluttering in the breeze. He stopped a few meters away from them. He looked at Sally and shook his head in exasperation. "You couldn't leave me alone for a few months couldn't you?"

She grinned, jumping, pirouetting in the air and landing beside Bucky, a hand on his head as he continued panting. He didn't drool, it was rude. "Of course not."

Crimson heaved a sigh, before gesturing to the ninjas. "I suggest you stay as far away as possible. It gets dangerous from now on."

The Hokage frowned at him. "She has commited crimes against Konoha, and as Hokage, I MUST do something about it. I do not know who you are, but if you are in any way, shape, or form assisting her, I will have to subdue you too."

Crimson raised a single eyebrow, before reaching in to his trenchcoat. "I am Crimson Avedon, a completely legal citizen of Konoha. I have done nothing at all even remotely illegal or counterproductive to the welfare of this village and its inhabitants." He brought out the papers confirming all of what he said.

Sarutobi frowned at the papers, but they were apparently genuine.

"On the contrary, I am actually helping Konoha. By keeping their Hokage from dying in the hands of Sally here, as I am telling you now, this is a fight you CANNOT win. Let me handle it." He finished.

He would have protested once again, if it wasn't for the sudden burst of power that came from him. It was ancient...and powerful. Very powerful. His words carried no lies, and he dwarfed his power by a large margin. He would have to trust in him. He nodded to the other ninja and they retreated, bringing the unconscious and dead with them, but not far enough that they couldn't see the battle.

Sally once again stabbed the blades to the ground. "Since it's you we're talking about, I can't exactly go use inferior weapons against you." She reached behind her, grasping the hilts of her katanas, and drew them out, the sound of steel grinding against steel was heard even by the far-away ninja.

Her katanas weren't just katanas. They were daikatanas. The back of the blades had serrated edges, masterfully made to rip out skin and tissue and to inflict as much pain as possible. They were deceptively simple, twin daikatanas made out of a gleaming silver metal. But there HAD to be more to it than that. "It would be an insult."

Crimson shrugged. "Very well, sister." He admitted, confirming some people's guesses as to who she was.

"Can I let Bucky join?" Sally asked.

Crimson tilted his head to the side, contemplating. "Yes, she IS your familiar after all."

She grinned. "Then bring it on."

He raised his hand to the heavens. "Gladly. Falling Feathers." He voiced out a spell.

Unlike before, there was absolutely nothing unusual when he said it. Itachi didn't even see any kind of energy from him being used.

Everything was silent and still for several seconds, and Sally was wondering if he actually DID cast a spell when white feathers LITERALLY started falling.

She frowned at them as they collected around her. It wasn't a downpour of feathers, just enough for there to be one every feet or so in the entire park. She picked up one, and immediately stiffened when it shattered into glowing particles. Her legs nearly buckled, and she struggled to stand. "A-archangel feathers. Y-you turned this place into holy ground." She gasped as all of the feathers broke apart into particles.

Crimson nodded. "So you figured it out. Yes, they're archangel feathers. What better way to weaken a Damned Devil? I admit, it's not as effective as on Cross's, but it still works. So, are you going to show your true form yet?"

Sally shook her head. "No. You haven't pulled all the stops yet." She straightened, going into her previous stance. "I'll wait for it." She charged, blades flashing in the sunlight.

His eyes shone for a moment.

"Forest of Steel."

Sally's eyes widened, and she leaped to the air.

Just in time as shards of metal, gigantic and tiny rose from the ground, some straight and edged, others more like vines with oversized thorns. Forest of steel indeed.

It was a lethal technique, whatever it was, and would have surely killed her if she had stayed. Bucky had been lucky enough to find a big, straight shard and had jumped on top of it, avoiding being skewered by the ones on the ground.

Sally landed on said shard of metal occupied by Bucky, and faced Crimson, ready to throw crescents of energy at him as the field slowly disappeared. But he hadn't been idle. He held an orb of multicolored liquid on his palm, most of which didn't look pleasant. "Acid Rain." He threw it into the air, and the orb shot straight into the clouds, which immediately changed color, and started an extremely quick process of precipitation.

Sally frowned, immediately creating a dome of fire to protect her from the corrosive rain.

**BOOM!**

She was blasted away from the explosion, before crashing into iron bramble, coming out of it with ripped clothes. A few centimeters more and her top wouldn't stay on. She blinked several times, confused, before examining the rain on her palm as her wounds slowly healed.

"The acid was an explosive one." Crimson quickly explained.

She pouted at him. "That was completely uncalled for. What's next? You summoning an undead army?"

Crimson shook his head. "I was planning on doing that on my first move and blessing the skeletons with Falling Feathers, but I figured that using their dead for battle wouldn't exactly put a good image of me for the people of Konoha." He suddenly made a pulling gesture.

Bucky slammed into Sally, knocking her down and saving her from a gruesome death by a lot of the stabby remains of the metal forest impaling her.

Crimson shook his head. "Almost hit her. Hell on Earth."

The entire park burst into black and red flames, unnaturally hot, and would dry-roast any ninja within moments. This time, using fire to shield yourself was a good idea.

After several moments, Crimson snapped his fingers, and the fire receded, leaving a burnt-out park. Sally cancelled out her shield, but Crimson wasn't done yet.

"Frozen Field." Thick mist wafted in rapidly, covering the entire battlefield, then the glassy sound of rapidly-forming ice as the mist disappeared, revealing a frozen field. Crimson's techniques were almost always, exactly as the name suggested, and only another rapid use of fire was all that saved Sally and Bucky.

She frowned. She would need to go on the offensive if she wished to win. She slashed at the air, blades of shadow energy accompanying each strike, all heading for Crimson along with Bucky who had gone into a running tackle.

"Doorway." A door opened, and the crescents of shadow and Bucky dived into it, unable to change their direction. Sally knew where it went to, and she rolled to the side as fast as she could. Not a moment too soon as another door had already opened and was spewing out its contents. Bucky was confused for a second before understanding what had happened.

"Static Field." Sally immediately reacted, grabbing Bucky and jumping to the air, staying afloat with the use of fire, avoiding the suddenly electrified ground.

"Crystalline Field."

Sally scowled as pointy, multicolored crystals covered the field, more than capable of reaching her current height.

She REALLY hated field spells.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Currently, the ninjas of Konoha were trying to pick their jaws up from the floor as Sally tried to avoid the fatally sharp and electrified crystals. She had shifted tactics from dodging them to cutting them apart with her ranged crescent projectiles. It was proving to be effective. And VERY destructive, as was obvious when one of her stray cuts continued past the field and continued cutting apart several hundred meters worth of trees.

Crimson hadn't been kidding when he said that this was a fight they couldn't win.

An ANBU gulped. "H-Hokage-sama. What shall we do?"

The old leader breathed deeply, wondering how the hell people like Crimson Avedon and this Sally avoided detection from the elemental countries. "Nothing. This battle is beyond us. We just hope for the best."

He looked back at the battle, where the electricity was starting to wear off. Whatever happened, this certainly wasn't good news. Not good news at all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Avalanche." The word was followed by a mountain of snow materializing behind him, (of course, passing though him without damage at all) rushing towards Sally and Bucky.

She gripped her swords tighter and gathered energy in them. Cutting it in half wouldn't do. She needed a bigger space to avoid it. Her fire blazed around the blades, growing larger than ever, so hot even, that the ground was smoldering from the heat. She angled herself in his direction and let loose with two of the biggest fire crescents she could make, burning a path through the snow, not to mention a projectile to harass Crimson. She charged through the gap, blades blazing.

Crimson clearly saw the crescent of fire, and knew just the spell for it. "Wall of Ice." Just like pretty much all of his spells, it was exactly as its name suggested. A wall of ice formed a few feet from him, protecting him from the otherwise deadly fire. He didn't expect Sally to suddenly carve a doorway through the wall though.

Considering the distance between her and him, he was lucky he still had his head. Sally could swing her swords quite quickly. He blocked the sword aiming for his head, then kicked away the other one with both feet, simultaneously using it as a springboard to jump farther away and gain some space. While in the air, he shot an orb of light green energy at the ground. "Entangling Field." Vines sprouted from the ground, nearly catching Sally in their grip, but the elusive woman pounced sideways, avoiding the more localized field spell. He could only cast them instantly if he was connected to the ground. Otherwise, he had to throw energy at where he wanted it, and it was weaker that way.

He landed several meters away, and got ready to cast another spell when Sally seemingly turned into darkness, _dropping _on the ground like ink in the air, then flowing in front of him like a rapid stream and forming back into her body, blade raised in the air for a downward slash. All this happened in the span of a hundredth of an instant.

Of course, Shadow Step. An extremely high-leveled devil skill that turned the user into liquid shadow, allowing her to move to a location faster than a millisecond. It would be faster at her true form.

If he wasn't in danger of being killed, he would be proud. She still had a hard time doing it when they last met after all.

He pointed his palm at her and used one of his favorite spells. "pulse" It was said in barely more than a whisper, but Sally heard it, and her pupils shrunk, even as she was suddenly flying backwards with absolutely insane speed, and only by gouging her swords and feet to the ground did she avoid slamming through the entire plantlife around the park and through the walls of Konoha even.

Pulse was one of his favorite spells for a reason.

It was an EXTREMELY powerful orb of kinetic energy...no, powerful didn't do it justice. It did no damage at all by hitting the target, all it did was send the one it connected with moving away in the direction it hit it. (And ONLY the one it hit, making it a convenient spell when trying to avoid hurting innocents)

With more force than a falling A-class meteor and with speed exceeding sound three times over.

If the friction of moving at that speed didn't kill you, the impact on any solid object would. Many a fleshy enemy had literally turned into a bloody stain on a titanium wall that way.

The fact that it was KINETIC energy meant that it was invisible, providing only the barest outlines of a popping clear bubble on the user's palm as your only visible hint of its usage, not even a distortion of the air was given.

The gigantic trenches that Sally had carved from the ground to avoid liftoff were proof of its strength.

He followed the spell by slamming his palm on the ground. "Shaking Earth." A wave of energy rippled across the earth, which started shaking and quaking, unbalancing Sally. He prepared another spell when Bucky tackled him, sending them both crashing through several trees. He groaned after the final impact. Thank Destiny for his idea to make reinforced clothes. He saw out of the corner of his eye Bucky rearing in to rip his throat out. He was going to have none of that.

"Shockwave." The ripple of force sent Bucky tumbling away with the force and speed of a bullet train. Despite the fact that Bucky would most definitely survive crashing through an entire forest, he still winced at how much that would hurt.

A whip of shadow snapped, coiling around his leg, and its wielder tugged with inhuman strength, near-instantly pulling him out of the foliage and into a waiting blade, read to skewer him. He wasn't planning on being skewered anytime soon. "Doorway." Once again, a door opened up before him, letting him tuck into a roll somewhere farther off and simultaneously cutting off the shadow whip, which had now dissolved in the sunlight without its connection to Sally.

He charged energy into his hand, and he knew his eyes had started glowing. "Lightning Bolt." He thrust his palm at her, and a full-powered magical bolt of amyethyst lightning shot out, filling the air with the scent of burnt ozone.

Sally stabbed her left sword at it, slamming her swords' hilts together as the lightning lanced towards the handle, continuing on to the other blade. She disconnected them, and raised her electrified right katana. She grinned.

Hellfire lanced up the blade, followed by jerking, corruptive energy, and topped by flowing darkness.

Crap.

She sliced, and a gigantic crescent of mixed energy sprouted from the blade, as large as the one she used to cut past his Avalanche, heading for Crimson.

'_Crap.' _He thought as he rapidly cast several spells in quick succession.

"Vibration Barrier, Splash, Plasma Cannon, Terra Wave, Tree of Iron."

The air muddled up, like splotched paint, along with the constant hum of vibrating atoms. A five-pointed pentagram with symbols for water appeared behind said barrier, casually rotating, followed by a sphere of concentrated electricity-neutralizing plasma, then a pulse of power that made the ground move into a literal tidal wave of earth. Finally, a gigantic iron oak tree, seventy feet tall, sprouted from the ground in front of him.

It seemed like a random array of spells, but it was actually a carefully chosen set of attacks.

The crescent went through the Vibration Barrier, and its integrity had been visibly jeopardized, no longer the cutting edge it once was, but more of a wave of destruction barely kept stable. The pentagram unleashed five streams of water, one from each point, cutting down the power of the wave. The ball of plasma neutralized the lightning the completely, leaving only darkness, corruptive energy, and a bit of hellfire.

Whatever was left of the hellfire disappeared in contact with the tsunami of dirt, and the remnants of the attack merely cut a sizable chunk into the iron tree, but didn't reach Crimson.

Still, it was a close call.

He panted. He hadn't noticed he was breathing deeply already. His reserves weren't infinite, well, at least without The Book, and he had been throwing around spells with no mind whatsoever for the consequences. It was time, or else he wouldn't win this.

Sally seemed to have noticed this too. "Are you finally going to take this seriously?" She asked, Bucky bounding to her side.

Crimson nodded, putting his palms together, and energy visibly poured forth. "Reunion." Was all he said, as he slowly separated his palms, the markings on his cloak and a vaguely swordlike shape glowing like the sun amidst the energy. He continued inching his hands farther away from each other, before grasping its hilt with his right hand and pulling the rest of its length from his other hand.

A thunderclap of energy sounded across the park, and the resulting flash of light nearly blinded them.

The light faded, and Crimson held in his grasp a magnificent broadsword. Its straight blade was a striking mix of blue, green, and silver, marked with beautiful curving designs. Its hilt was encrusted with twin sapphires on the guard, and rubies on the pommel, all four of which gleamed majestically in the sunlight. Surprisingly, its blade was only three feet six inches long, with an eleven-inch handle. Shorter than both of Sally's katanas by an inch.

The scarlet and obsidian light on his cloak's markings pulsed like a beating heart, in rhythm with his breathing, and he spoke, rejuvenated. "Your turn."

Sally smiled as she stabbed her swords into the ground once again. "Of course."

"Sanctuary Sphere." Crimson muttered under his breath, a near-transparent bubble forming around him.

Then everything went to hell.

Not literally of course. The entire park just turned into a blazing field of hellfire, fire that reached to the sky itself. It was like her previous transformation from cute child to sexy woman, only the area of rising fire was larger. A LOT larger.

Then, the fire itself seemed to still, ceasing all movement, before rushing in with renewed ferocity to the center of the fiery maelstorm.

The resulting explosion heralded an intense aura of menace. An ancient primal power that unlocked base memories from the ninjas. Memories of fear, of darkness, of fire, and a hell that none wished to remember. All the while, Crimson stood steadfast, the bubble of magic protecting him from the burning wrath.

The fire receded, she roused, and everyone saw a stir, much like cloth from the drapes do when a wind moves them. And everyone (but Crimson) gasped at the sight.

Once again, she had changed. She had gained three inches in height, and her hair had shifted color into a beautiful, obsidian black.

Her skin had been pale originally, but now it was an inhuman shade of alabaster beauty.

Huge, translucent, pale-white gossamer bat-like wings opened up like a shy angel, revealing a long, prehensile tale in a circle around her feet, and a voluptuous form, toned and taut to absolute perfection.

She stepped daintily, examining her new body through half-lidded eyes. Lips that were such a striking shade of blood, so contrasting with her inhumanly pale countenance, smirked in satisfaction, fangs poking through her lips, head held high, revealing a choker, black as midnight, with a detailed silver symbol of a panther.

She spun, tail uncoiling, full breasts swaying with each mesmerizing step, with the grace not of a dancer, but of a predator.

She stopped, turning her gaze tantalizingly slowly to Crimson. _"Magnificent."_ She purred, and if her voice had been hypnotic before, now, it sounded like an angel's but with an undertone of something ancient that they couldn't comprehend.

It was enticing, like nectar and ambrosia, the drink and food of the gods, fused into the most delightful of tastes.

She spread her wings, the gust lifting up the strands of her now black-as-night kimono, giving the barest hints of a silk crimson thong, the stirring cloth making the beautiful burning floral design look almost _alive_.

Perfection indeed.

Eyes opened completely, now with catlike golden slits at the center, and the ninja nearly gasped at the feeling they suddenly felt just from seeing her eyes. There was something about her eyes, _something_ that seemed so, so...worlds couldn't describe it. It was like looking into the eyes of sin itself. The sharingan and byakugan combined had nothing on them.

Yet, it drew them in. Much like how the promise of the forbidden fruit would draw in even the most sane, regardless of the consequences.

A hellish snarl bade them to look somewhere else.

Bucky, too, had changed.

Where he once reached to only five feet, he now reached to thirteen, having more than doubled in size, now taller than his mistress.

His fur retained its color but had turned sleeker, his pupils were now red, and his claws and fangs had an unearthly shine to them. Not to mention that hellfire burned all over his body. Around his neck, his forelegs and hindlegs, his paws, and down his spine to the tip of his tail, trailing a path of acrid smoke and burning footprints.

The biggest difference though, was the clothing.

Head, neck, arms, legs, chest, back. All of them were now equipped with crimson and obsidian steel armor, heavily designed with intricate carvings and markings, with his collar replaced with a heavy metal choker with his name engraved into it, he looked like a hound of war.

If Sally's power had previously felt like a mountain upon their shoulders, now it felt like an entire ocean. And Bucky himself was radiating more than half of Sally's own pressure.

She raised a wing to cover her mouth like a courtesan does with a fan. "I sure do hope you'll be able to keep up, brother."

Crimson smirked, and spoke in a charming, gentlemanly tone. "Honestly, sister, you know I aim to please."

Sally smiled sensually behind her wing. "Then show me, edge dancer."

Crimson actually gave a bow to her, with a flourish even. "Same to you, Damned Devil."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Yes! Chapter six is DONE! WOO-HOO!**

**Sorry about the cliffhanger. I decided that this chapter's already too long and adding the full-powered fight scene would be too much, since you guys don't review that much even for long chapters. *cries***

**Anyway, I'm wondering about a lot of stuff currently.**

**I'm going to be messing with the Naruto world here. You see, I try my utter best to be as close to the facts as possible, that's why if I make a crossover, it's more of 'someone from another dimension goes to someone else's' kind, not where they exist in one universe and just haven't met.**

**But I don't like the new developments. First off, the Juubi. There is NO FRIGGIN WAY I'm gonna make the bijuu just some parts of some bigger and badder chakra beast. They deserve better than that. Besides, the Zelathians' presence is messing with the world's history already. Since basically, things that happen outside the scope of Naruto's life isn't important, the history of the world as of now, is changing, there will suddenly be ancient creatures and powerful beings hiding around the Naruto world, which WOULDN'T have affected Naruto's life so long as the Zelathians hadn't been there to MAKE them affect Naruto's life. So the bijuu aren't going to be the only demons around. Heck, if Moryo exists, then others should too! A few vampire kingdoms and more Demonlords wouldn't be too much, right?**

**Second, I'm wondering who else should be part of the guys that winded up in the Naruto universe. Hidan is gonna be an apprentice of two, that's for certain, but if I include Martin Farrow, it's gonna be three. But Martin seems a bit too damn powerful to be here, and he would probably mess up the story and make it harder to make due with so many characters, which would result it slower update time.**

**Third, I'm getting damn confused with Kiri. Madara has apparently once been the Mizukage, Yagura is the fourth, and Mei Terumi is the fifth. Now, if Haku was being hunted down when she/he was a kid, then that meant Mei still isn't the Mizukage, since she would have stopped that. So Yagura is still alive, and he's the one that's been ordering the bloodline purge. But it's been hinted that Yagura was being manipulated by, or was working with, the Akatsuki, so I'm wondering if he should be being manipulated, or working with them.**

**Fourth, the Jinchuuriki seem SO DAMN WEAK! I mean, COME ON! If ninja could seal bijuu with sealing arts, then yeah, I can accept that. But ninja beating ninja with bijuu chakra? Friggin impossible if you ask me. Sure, SOME might not be trained to use the chakra, but they still have unnaturally large reserves even without tapping into the bijuu's chakra, a definite plus. And since bijuu were basically used as weapons of war, they WOULD be trained to be the best they can. If not to use the chakra, then to have skills that make use of their unnaturally high reserves. And Kisame was said to beat the four tails HEAD-ON! Without the element of surprise! WTF?! They beat the Jinchuurikis even without the element of surprise, when even his apparent ultimate move (the big moving dome of water) should theoretically have been possible to be utterly turned to steam by the yonbi. Jeezus!**

**And fifth, some of the bijuu are gonna be changed. The Gobi Jinchuuriki, for one, is going be an apprentice if I change his bijuu from a dolphin-horse to the wolf that could use all five elements and wield illusions. **

**So yeah, things are gonna be changing. The Naruto world is too damn messed up.**

**So you guys make the choice. **

**1. I'm SURE the Juubi isn't gonna be existing, but will I make any other demons and monsters show up? Cause with the apprentices' power levels, there wouldn't be enough S-class ninjas to give enough action scenes where they actually have a challenge. So you choose.**

**2. You choose if I should include Martin. Remember, he would be a serious pain in the ass to include.**

**3. So Yagura's still alive, and you guys choose if he's being manipulated or working with the Akatsuki. And whatever the answer, can some of you give explanations on how it came to that?**

**4. Should I make the other Jinchuuriki appear as weak as they are on canon? Or should I up the ante and make changes that would make the fights more awesome?**

**5. As for the Gobi Jinchuuriki, you choose if I should make him an apprentice. I'll give you a treat. His master would be a librarian...that is THE walking avatar of calamity itself. I'll tell you guys to choose if any other possible Jinchuuriki changes pop up.**

**6. After the seventh chapter, should I continue with Konoha for another chapter, or should I make the next episode after that about another one. Like the world's greatest thief and the Goth/emo that can devour anything. Or the unkillable emotionless soldier. You choose.**

**7. On a last note, what did you guys think of Crimson? He's awesome ain't he? And his field spells piss off enemies so much he can't stop doing them. Not to mention that they work so well in groups...**

**So, review folks! And answer the questions! Or at least review!**

**Remember! I update faster with reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Crap. STILL not many reviews. COME ON! I'm gonna abandon this fic if this continues...**

**Anyway, if you guys are complaining about not enough Naruto screentime, then sorry. It's hard to include the Zelathians in here, and it's in the nature of most of them to cause as much trouble as possible, causing the saner ones to stop the trouble, resulting in fights.**

**Naruto isn't going to be showing up majorly until three years later, where he learns using energy after getting his body into shape. The Zelathians will lose their screentime when it actually gets into canon. So keep yourselves cool and just read, it'll come, it'll come...**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

She blurred, and he backpedaled, just as Sally appeared in front of him in an instant, (pure speed this time) her high-heeled heel breaking the earth. He swung Reunion in an arc with speed many times his previous one, but Sally just jumped over it, pirouetting and slicing at the same time with her blades. Magic manifested itself into a solid broadsword of purple energy, and he kept up with her insane speed even as she landed, their hands literally a blur, more than a hundred strikes per second, and steel rung so fast it seemed a continuous screech to those who didn't have sensitive enough hearing.

He spotted a dashing form at the corner of his vision, and he rolled sideways, just as Bucky barreled past his previous position, leaving a trail of burnt earth.

Magic rushed through his veins, wilder now, more powerful, yet easier to control, more patient, and with more willingness to serve, enabling him to actually enhance his own body's capabilities continuously and without harm without using any augmentation spells.

Reunion made SUCH a big difference.

He made a mental note to polish the magnificent sword again. Though it apparently wasn't sentient, you could never be sure with extremely powerful swords. As too much energy literally developed minds over time, and Reunion had possessed enough energy to go through that threshold before he ever received it from Cross Erazur. He didn't want another Phantasma and Spectra incident. **(1)**

The purple sword disappeared, and he flipped, balancing on one hand, spinning gracefully, the edges of his cloak covering an arc and glinting eerily, and Sally, strangely enough, took more notice of the cloak than Reunion, taking great measure to avoid the rippling cloth.

She almost got skewered by his broadsword.

She pounced away, frowning as he righted himself with a fancy movement of his legs, a slight smile on his face before giving a 'come hither' gesture.

His eyebrows rose up slightly before he jumped high, several meters into the air, curled into a ball as a gigantic cone of hellfire from behind engulfed the ground he had been on. Wings of Wind." He muttered, said appendages formed on his back, and he stayed aloft, avoiding being barbecued by hellfire since his time in the air since the jump wouldn't have been enough to outlast the fire that was still erupting from Bucky's maw.

Speaking about said maw, Bucky had spotted him, and had immediately angled his blast at him.

He flew away, nearly getting caught by the continuously widening cone of destruction. He wondered for a moment where the Devilhound got the firepower from before remembering that he was a familiar of a Damned Devil, a sub-species notorious for insane amounts of energy.

Well crap.

He dodged to the side, avoiding crescents of darkness, which were interestingly enough, not from the direction of the ground.

He raised an eyebrow at her hovering form, standing on top of a circle of darkness. She leaped off it, wings flapping, and he barely managed to veer to the left to avoid getting skewered by her blades.

He spun, blocking another slash as she reversed her flight, and they disengaged, before slamming together once again, continuously and without pause, looking like the primordial demon and angel locked in mortal combat.

He flipped sideways, spinning like a saw, the edges of his cloak whirling, and Sally beat her wings, retreating and avoiding the coat. He angled his wings, and fell to the ground like a diving hawk, avoiding a charge from Bucky as he walked on air, this time trailing darkness.

He spun at the last second, landing solidly but lightly on the ground, before pointing his finger at the two, frosty energy gathering at his fingertips. "Blizzard." A beam of energy shot into the air, and a snowstorm formed, raining large hailstones and spikes of ice.

The two hellish beings dived to the ground, avoiding the frozen projectiles as they did so, and Sally spun, rotating like a high-speed drill, hellfire gathering around her.

He frowned. "Sanctuary Sphere."

Another whirlwind of fire burned to the sky, and the magical blizzard ceased, overpowered by the heat. He covered his face with his sleeve, the acrid smoke acting like a fog and putting his visibility at zero. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the sounds around him...

His eye twitched when he thought of an easier way. "Gravity."

The weight of the particles of smoke increased a hundredfold, and the air couldn't hold them up anymore. They fell to the ground like used-up bullets, and he spotted Sally and Bucky sneaking up behind him. They blinked.

He threw a lightning bolt at them. They split up, dodging it.

Bucky pounced at him, and his sword grinded across his claws and armor, and he crashed to the ground, his magic-enhanced strength barely keeping the lethal fangs at bay. He felt the temperature heating up as Bucky once again moved to using hellfire. "Shifting Sands."

The ground turned into loose sand, and Bucky had to scramble to regain his footing, giving him enough time to Pulse the canine off of him.

He blinked at the sight of Bucky turning into a dot at the sky above him.

He quickly rolled, avoiding another crescent of hellfire, and he jumped up, energy gathering throughout his body in preparation for a spell.

He grinned as he cast another one of his favorite spells. "Arsenal Gateway: Open."

A loud creaking groan sounded throughout the field, and a rift of multicolored energy materialized directly behind him, floating a foot and a half from the ground.

Sally raised an eyebrow. "Ahh, bringing in the big-hitters so early?"

"I'm not in the mood to waste time." He answered, charging at her, the gate moving with him and a sheath appearing at his belt and tucking Reunion in it, though its boost remained.

He grabbed behind him, his hand sinking into the rift, and he pulled out a scythe whose handle seemed to be made of stark-white bone, whose green energy blade sprouted from a demonic skull. He threw it at Sally, revealing it had a chain connected at the end, which was connected to a double-bladed battle axe of a similar make. Sally dodged the scythe, and managed to bring her blades up to block the blow from the battleaxe, one which sent a shock throughout her shoulders from its force.

Crimson brought his right leg back, sinking into the portal before bringing it back up equipped in a scarlet liberally spiked greave. She gasped when he kicked her on the stomach, multiple spikes piercing her abdomen, and she made a noise between a pleasurable moan and a gasp of pain, one which only grew louder when he pulled back the scythe and stabbed her left shoulder with it, the blade going cleanly through the bones of a devil and sticking. He brought the axe down, but she pulled back her foot to avoid it.

No matter.

He put both hands inside the gateway, and grinned at what he grasped. He jumped backwards pulling out a longbow seemingly made completely out of white feathers, and a completely silver object that seemed a mix between a long dagger and an arrow.

He nocked the blade-arrow, and fired.

It punctured her thigh, but didn't break through completely. She gave a howl of mixed pleasure and pain, her knees crashing to the ground. She panted, eyes crazed, before stabbing her swords to the ground and shakily standing up. She pulled out the scythe and the blade-arrow, dropping the scythe to the ground, but holding on to the blade-arrow. She brought it up to her lips, a long tongue licking it oh-so sensually, moaning in bliss at the taste.

She turned lustful eyes at him. "So you CAN be rough with me."

He merely gave a slight frown at her already-healing wounds, before returning the bow and putting both hands and left leg into the portal, coming out with a matching red greave for his left leg and similarly-colored gauntlets with four, one and a half foot long claws for each hand.

He charged, swinging the claws wildly, crescents of red energy sprouting from each motion.

Sally grinned, matching the crescents with her own, before clashing with the claws, steel grinding against steel, sparks flying from each impact, and metal screeching like the death-throes of an animal. She kicked at him, and it was blocked by one of his greaves, but she used it as a springboard, pivoting and getting inside his defenses, her other heel slamming painfully onto his chest, and he flew backwards, tucking into a roll and ending up in a crouch, already bringing his claws up, and just in time too, to block a double-footed dropkick from Sally, one that sent him skidding back several feet away.

He started slashing at once, blocking Sally's swords as she attacked him relentlessly, never giving him an inch to spare, and him giving the same treatment to her, their bodies became blurs as they moved throughout the battlefield, dodging blows as much as they gave them, and ravaging the ground with stray attacks.

Crimson jumped, spinning and rotating wildly in the air, creating cutting crescents in as many directions as fast as he could, buying enough time to safely change weapons. He switched to two, long, double-saw-edged blades with weird handles. He slammed their pommels together, and they connected and interlocked, holding firm. THEN he started spinning it like a staff.

Sally jumped back, barely avoiding the deadly staff-blade. Crimson leaped at her, disconnecting them and engaging her, blow for blow.

Each contact with the blade creating ripples in the very air itself, a centralized sonic wave, and Sally could feel her arms straining. Crimson suddenly swept them below her feet, a move that she jumped above, before he kicked the handles upward, nearly stabbing Sally with the projectiles. He reached inside the portal, his arms and fingers coming out wrapped in moonlight-luminous chains that ended in blue crescents.

His arm snapped towards her, the five chains ejecting from his fingers with the speed of a bullet, and she barely dodged them. He continued moving his arm, his other limb joining in after a few seconds, and Sally could barely avoid the chains that he skillfully, and relentlessly I might add, maneuvered towards her.

Thankfully, Bucky was there to help.

Crimson's eyes widened as Bucky crashed into him, berating his stupidity for focusing solely on Sally. But he had bigger problems right now. Said problem being engulfed in hellfire.

Sally grinned as Bucky bounded away, and the area Crimson was in was suddenly shredded into so many little scraps, as if a million blades had been swung at the speed of sound. "Finally, you start dancing."

"Shut up." Came the cold reply, and her pupils shrunk, and she barely escaped with her arms in place, shadow stepping away. She eyed the numerous cuts on her arms that had sliced cleanly through without resistance, a testament to the sharpness of whatever weapon's edge he used.

She looked at Crimson, he was standing behind her previous position, sideways to her, his cloak rippling like waves on an ocean. His eyes had turned a frozen blue, and his face was as hard as the coldest ice, unreadable and frigid. The fact that the Arsenal Gateway had disappeared and he wasn't wielding Reunion gave birth to the question of HOW he cut her up.

She brought her blades up, knowing full well how serious it had become. Edge Dancing was a style very few could master, and just the novices of the art could beat masters of the sword. Crimson was a grandmaster. A full-blown grin spread across her face. "Bring it on."

"Gladly." He appeared before her, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and she barely saw it, graceful, beautiful movements not unlike a dance. He spun, cloak twirling, spinning like corkscrew, rippling movement of a warrior, a dancer, a _**killer**_.

She tried her best to avoid the cloth, and it became obvious why.

It cut her. But not like a blade. Oh no, any pressure from the cloth would penetrate her skin, like superheated metal through butter. She couldn't block, as he could maneuver it to slide across her, and the cloth was unnaturally slick. She couldn't slice it; her blade would merely slide across it or push against it, but never slice. Nor could she catch it or pin it down; she had stomped on it, the ground breaking, her heels pinning it down, (or so she thought) and he merely pulled it with the slightest gesture, and it came free; same as when she had grabbed a handful of it.

There was a reason why it was such a lethal style. And she had yet to discover how they made the cloth that way.

Her eyes widened as a thousand crescents came at her, bright blue, thinner than the eyes of a needle, and fast as lightning. Only her skill and devil-gotten speed saved her as she weaved through the swarm, and came face to face with Crimson.

He moved; subtle footing that typically took centuries to master, the edges of his clothes sliding across her skin and cutting like no one's business. Muscles and tendons around her arms and legs were severed, and she was gutted like a fish, a grevious wound from her navel to collarbone opening up, followed by a titanic impact on her chest that sent her crashing to the ground.

She blinked, eyes wide, shocked at the sheer difference in power. She hadn't even been able to bring her sword up for anything, and she had been cut up so fast she hadn't even felt it until now.

She coughed, blood staining her lips, and wondered if she should moan in pleasure or scream in pain. She winced as a boot drove the air from her lungs. She gazed up into Crimson's cold, hard stare, his eyes slowly turning back to purple. She chuckled at her expense. "The gap's still so big huh? And from what I've heard, you haven't been training that much."

Crimson rolled his eyes. "I keep myself fit, and I don't forget my moves...ever. And Bucky, I won't ever give you any of my special steaks again if you so much as TRY to attack me." The Devilhound gave a groan, before plopping down, head on his paws, and eyes sorrowfully pleading for forgiveness at his mistress. Crimson's special doggy steaks were THAT good.

He looked her over, before snapping his fingers and a soft blue glow encompassed Sally's body, healing all injuries. "So, what brings you here? Unless you really went here solely to annoy me."

She beamed at him. He twitched, and his fingers tapped Reunion's hilt ominously.

He heaved a sigh, palming his face. "You're staying here aren't you?"

She nodded.

"And there's nothing I can do to change your mind?"

Another nod.

He took a deep breath, and Sally nearly stopped breathing when she felt the killing intent disappear, and nearly choked on her own spit when she saw his eyes had turned red. His scarlet eyes gazed into hers, with the unnaturally calm stare only one in the Avedon state could manage. "Accepted. Most of the villagers I could care less about, but, I'd rather you not mess with the minds of my apprentice and friends. It would prove...bothersome." He frowned, as if thinking of an unsavory chore. "And I tend to **eliminate** bothersome things. _Understood_?" The way he spoke of it, it was like he was speaking merely of throwing away the trash.

Sally knew that he meant every word when in this state. She had once gone against one of his rules, and only the presence of two Crusader branch members had saved her. She nodded tersely. "O-of course."

He nodded in satisfaction, and red gradually gave way to purple. "Good." He pulled her up, dusting off some stray dirt from her clothes, not minding at all the more obvious bloodstains. "Now come on, we have to settle your citizenship with the Hokage."

They turned around and walked into a Doorway, appearing in front of the ninjas, who were still attempting to pick their mental jaws off the ground.

"Well, for now, the danger's passed. She'll be staying, that's for sure. But she'll be kept in check...hopefully." He once again cursed at the existence of the word.

"Staying? Crimson-san, isn't that a bad thing?" Itachi, asked, frowning at the subject of the conversation.

Crimson grunted. "_OF COURSE _it's a bad thing. But I've managed to set up some ground rules. You're safe, so long as you don't provoke her or make her think you're hitting on her."

The Hokage grimaced. "I cannot in good conscience allow that. She has murdered citizens and ninja of Konoha, and so, is an enemy."

Sally pouted, looking attractive despite the dirt on her person. "He insulted Crimson, so I killed him. And those ninjas tried to kill me first." She protested.

Crimson sighed, wondering whether he should feel touched or berate her. "She WILL stay. She's too stubborn to accept a no. And since I honestly won't be fighting her again, do you honestly want to battle her without my help?" He asked, gesturing to the park. The ninjas gulped, remembering the all-too-recent battle.

It had been decimated. A constant use of fire had utterly burned the life out of it, leaving black, cracked, burnt-out dry ground. Shards and pieces of crystal and steel yet remained, shining unnaturally under the glow of the sun, and the iron tree stood tall, its side slowly healing, as if it was an actual living tree (which it was). **(2)** Trenches and grooves all around the field reminded them of the cutting crescents both warriors tended to use, and the large path of severed tree trunks from one of Sally's stray crescents told them just how powerful the attack was.

Oh no, they weren't in the mood for _THAT_ in any case...

He shook his head. "You have no choice in this matter. You either take her on and possibly lose, or allow her to live here and have only minimal casualties from people too stupid to have even vestiges of common sense. The way I see it, we're doing you a favor."

Sarutobi scowled, annoyed at being maneuvered into a corner by these two strangers. He sighed wearily. "Very well. The lesser of the two evils then." He glared at Sally. "We'll discuss making you a Konoha citizen at the Hokage tower." He turned towards the ninja. "Men, all knowledge of today's activities is to be considered an S-class secret. Now cover up the damage." He gestured to Crimson, asking him to make one of his famous 'Doorways'.

He shrugged sheepishly. "I cannot. I can only make portals to places I have been to. Or places 500 meters around me if I haven't been there yet." **(3)**

The Sandaime sighed at this, before using a shunshin and transporting the four to his office. He sat down wearily on his chair, muttering something along the lines of, "I'm too old for this shit."

He studied the three beings (he highly doubted either of them was human) in his office. Bucky sat on his rump, tongue lolling out of his mouth but not drooling, Sally was inspecting her fingernails, and was frowning at their current state, while Crimson was wiping his sword almost lovingly with a wet rag that smelled of a strange metallic odor. Not to mention the fact that Sally and Bucky were still in their hellish forms.

He coughed, and the two looked up from what they were doing, though Crimson continued to wipe his blade without looking at it.

"Yes?" Crimson asked.

"Before we officially approve her citizenship, I want to know your reasons for going to Konoha."

Crimson raised an eyebrow. "I guess I would say: to escape my sister. But since she's staying and I'm not going anywhere, it would be redundant. So I would state that it's to train my newfound apprentice."

The Sandaime furrowed his brow. "Apprentice?"

"Uchiha Itachi."

Sarutobi blinked rapidly. "I-Itachi?"

Crimson grinned. "Yes. Itachi. Now don't think I'm teaching him spells of mass destruction. Oh no, that would be too much for him." His eyes shifted to red. "...the _true_ skills of an assassin would be more fitting." He finished coldly, and the shinobi shuddered.

The Sandaime noted the fact way that Sally and Bucky tensed until the last remnants of red was gone from his eyes. He would have to remember that fact. He looked at Sally. "What about you?"

She grinned. "I came here to check up on my brother, and to see if his skills haven't rusted."

He rolled his eyes. "As you have just seen, I am perfectly fine, and my skills are still-"

"I meant your _other_ skills. The ones I taught you."

Cue rapid twitching and sporadic bursts of energy.

He gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to repeatedly stab her. "I haven't forgotten **any** of them..."

She smirked at him. "Good. Because our deal is still active."

"I haven't forgotten about it." He drawled. Oftentimes, he wondered HOW Sally managed to get the dirt on him. Maybe she was a Recorder branch member in disguise?

"Oh, and Crimson? I have a question."

He frowned. Sally usually addressed him by his actual name when serious. "Yes?"

"Have you gotten laid yet?"

Oftentimes, he wondered why she considered his virginity such an important matter.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Civilians and ninja alike looked up in shock as a magnificent blast of purple lightning ripped through one side of the top of the tower, widening out as it got farther, encompassing more than the width of the entire tower as it reached across the horizon. Thankfully, it faded after a few moments. However, it left an entire city frightened to near death.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sally pouted at his empty chair. "Hmph. Looks like he's still a virgin." She shook her head. "If this goes on, he'll NEVER get a woman."

Sarutobi hid behind his desk, face pale to the point of being white, heart hammering in his chest. Terrified at the amount of power he had suddenly shown.

One thing was for sure: this village will never be the same again.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson twitched. Twice.

While Anko hadn't become Sally's apprentice, the next worst thing happened.

They had hit off and become friends.

As of now, he was duly considering hiking off to the middle of nowhere and trying out farming for the rest of his immortal life. Anything was better than being forced to watch them change clothes and tell them how they looked. Reason for said situation was that Sally was preparing to open a clothing store.

Yes. A clothing store. Who's owner is probably the world's biggest nymphomaniac. Damn you sixth sense of Lacroans for being right.

And if that wasn't enough, she had settled down on the space right in front of his store. _'I hate my life.'_ He thought.

Anko chuckled at his expense, currently wearing a loose, yellow yukata with red phoenix figures on it that only served to enhance the features on her body. She smiled sensually at him, covering her mouth with a simple fan. "So, how do you like this one, Crim-son-kun?" She put heavy emphasis on his name, adding a delectable slur in it.

As professionalism demanded, he HAD to answer truthfully. '_Damn my professionalism.'_ He swore in his head. "Any typical red-blooded male would be drooling by now." He spoke out loud.

Sally (in her human form) giggled behind several clothes racks, wearing a green, long-sleeved dress that was loose on the arms and shoulders, cut on both sides from the thighs to show off a good length of creamy leg, and unreasonably tight from the stomach up; seeming more like a second skin and straining against her impressive bust, to say nothing about the plunging neckline and the sexy wooden slippers.

Anko had considered Sally's transgressions against her as justified. After all, she just did what was apparently natural for her, (and Anko herself would have killed anyone who insulted her friends if she wouldn't get arrested for it) and since she was Crimson's sister, she had tried to get to know her. I.E. suddenly start throwing kunai and shuriken and generally try to kill her.

All it had taken was an entire afternoon of attempting to kill each other, some positive comments about each other's clothes, and Sally killing _another _villager for insulting her friend, (a friend of any Avedon is a friend of the entire Avedon family, so she says) and she already considered Sally as one of her most trusted confidantes. Never mind the fact she wasn't human. Crimson apparently wasn't too, but hey, they cared about her, and that was that.

Anko blinked and stared as a blue eyeball with red wings flew up to Crimson, and seemingly whispered to him, a quiet _chitter chitter_, despite said eye not having any vocal chords or organs to make sounds with.

He stood up, dusting his clothes. "Well, Itachi's already at the store for training. Be seeing you two. Come on Jimmy." The eye, apparently called Jimmy, somehow made it look as if he was smiling, and followed his master, fading into invisibility long before they were out of sight in the other store.

Sally tsked, lamenting the chance to further frustrate the battlemage. But she wouldn't keep him from that. She had seen him and Itachi together and knew how much he loved training the genius. Maybe she should have an apprentice too?

She blinked at the thought, before smiling evilly. Oh yes, an apprentice would be nice...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"-set traps in all of the situations he might do in a day. Like putting a marine viper in his bathtub, placing a poisoned needle in places he might sit, replacing his toothpaste with an-"

Crimson blinked as he was instructing Itachi on how to quickly kill noblemen and women when you didn't have time to regulate his activities in a day.

He looked up and glared the sky from the clearing they were in. His sixth sense was once again warning him of impending danger, and he KNEW it wasn't wrong. Dear god, this was almost as bad as the one he felt when Sally somehow managed to convince (blackmail) five spell-lords into putting him inside a porn video!

'_Damn you Destiny. Damn you...'_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in the Hyuuga compound, Hiashi Hyuuga felt an unnatural chill run down his spine.

He quickly regained his composure. "Hmph. It must be but the morning breeze." He muttered.

However, Hinata felt something else. It was as if it was her birthday, and the entire world was about to celebrate it. For a moment, she let a small smile grace her face, before going back to her usual shy expression, thinking that it must be her mind playing tricks on her.

After all, why would something good happen to a failure like her?

...you have no fuckin idea...

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Explanations:**

**(1) The Phantasma ela Fira and Spectra dela Frigida incident. A mishap when one of Crimson's 'friends' didn't use his weapons for far too long and the two katars revealed themselves to be sentient, taking solid forms and generally wreaking havoc due to pent-up frustration at not getting to destroy anything for too long. Moral of the story: Make sure to use your extremely powerful weapons as much as possible. They might be sentient and get pissed at you.**

**(2) The Tree of Iron is a tree regularly grown in Lacroa. This way, they have a self-sustaining source of metal, instead of depending on resources that takes millions of years to replenish. On a side note, there are many other types of metal or crystal trees. Such as the Tree of Diamond, or the Tree of Silver......man, that must explain why the Lacroans are so damn rich...**

**(3) This is a hint that will help you figure out where Crimson and Company had originally landed on in the Naruto world. Another hint: the place has already been shown in he story.**

******Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**And that's it! The battle between siblings is finished! And you finally know what an Edge Dancer is! **

**Also, can you guys answer some questions?**

**What do you think of Crimson's style? Some people say it's gay...I don't like gay things. So I wanna know if it's awesome or not.**

**Who should I put in the next chapter? A. The man in black that can devour anything and the greatest thief in the world? (apprentice: Kimimaro) B. The mistress of lightning, Cross Erazur's sister, his ¾ vampire ¼ Lacroan son and his werepyre (half werewolf, half vampire) girlfriend. (apprentice: Nii Yugito, Samui, maybe the other Kumo ninjas) C. The unkillable emotionless soldier. (apprentice: Hidan [gasp dun dun dun DUN!])**

**What do you think will happen to Konoha with Sally's appearance? And exactly what do you think of Sally herself?**

**You probably didn't expect Jimmy the Eye didn't you? Heh, didn't think he meant it literally when he said 'because of flying invisible eyeballs' didn't ya? Anyway, I don't own him, so you can't sue me since I admitted it.**

**Also, OMAKE! Of the time when hand puppets tried to take over the earth!**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Cross Avedon laughed maniacally as he randomly shot people left and right. Crim and Erazur would give him hell about it later, but who cared about the pain-in-the-asses?

Suddenly, a literal tidal wave of trash swept across the city he was in, and he was dragged down under.

He sputtered for a while, nearly swallowing the refuse before turning to his devil form and burning a path to the air, and promptly stared open-mouthed the carnage.

The entire city...had been destroyed. It HAD been a tidal wave, and not of liquid, but of solid objects. The buildings and people didn't stand a chance. Only his devilish durability saved him.

"Who dares...KILL THE PEOPLE I WAS GONNA KILL?! **WHO DARES?!"** He shouted, nearly foaming at the mouth.

"I do! For it is time, for the Sesame Street guys to take over!" Oscar the Grouch proclaimed...stupidly, I might add. Pissing off a Damned Devil is never good for your health.

"_**DIE!!!!"**_ The sky turned black, despite it being morning just moments ago as darkness formed and covered the heavens, and hellfire coalesced, encompassing the entire city.

Oscar didn't have time to squeak before the entire city was burned to ashes, and the ashes crushed into a large, flat expanse of black earth.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson Avedon smiled at the sun. All was fine. The war was over, the world had been kept in order, and peace reigned.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

His eye twitched, and he looked at the direction of the explosion, before his pupils shrunk at the sight.

Gigantic skyscrapers were falling left and right, being broken down from gigantic fractures that originated from the ground. He ran towards it, teleporting several times before skidding to a stop at the appearance of the perpetrator: ELMO?!

"Your reign has ended! Prepare to be destroyed, by the awesome martial arts powers of Elmo, humans!" The hand puppet proceeded to punch another building, and a gigantic crack spread across it.

He groaned, before he raised his hand to the sky. "Meteor Strike."

The flaming projectile crashed to the ground, crushing the red puppet. He waved a hand, and the meteor disappeared from a large Doorway, before he looked at the remains.

His eye gave several more twitches at the sight of the familiar electronics, before looking at the news on one of the stores that had survived.

"Apparently, Sesame Street has staged a Coup d'état, with Grover causing earthquakes, Mr. Snuffleupagus sucking everything up in his black hole of a nose, the Martians firing death-rays, Big Bird raining exploding feathers, Ernie-"

He didn't listen to the rest. He knew where this came from.

"ANITA!!!!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inside one the Avedon family's hideouts, Anita Avedon of Science Branch chucked her old inventions from her childhood inside a wormhole.

"Hmm, the Transformer Cube? Neh. Makes too many evil robots." She threw it in. "The Count? Nope. Has a habit of turning people into his mindless slaves." She chucked it in. "Hmm...and what are these? Ah! My old dinosaur figures that turn into real dinosaurs! Well, already got better ones. And what have we-OOH! My Barney doll that turns into Godzilla! Damn, but I've already got one that turns into all kinds of monsters. Bye!" She threw those two in also. She looked at what was left. The room was still three-fourths full.

Needless to say, Crimson and the gang had a LOT of cleaning up to do.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**And cut!**

**Ha! I love those scenes!**

**So, tell me what you think! And review! Or else I might abandon this fic...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Oftentimes, E wondered if accepting the job of Raikage was a good idea. Sure, he had been able to make his brother Kirabi, and Yugito accepted into the village instead of the possibility of being outcasts and pariahs. But the damn paperwork was hell! He belonged out there, fighting S-rank ninjas and basically blowing stuff up, not doing paperwork.

Which was why he was practically overjoyed when someone entered his office through the means of a lightning bolt, shattering the windows with a resounding thunderous crash.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something." The newcomer said in a light alto, standing on the windowsill of the window she broke, the wind carrying her hair in a breeze.

E grinned, studying said newcomer. "Not at all, I'm actually happy for the interruption." He admitted.

She stood at 5'7, with a lithe body made for speed and agility, bright jade-green eyes and lustrous light-brown auburn hair. She wore a bright, electric-blue battle gown with golden lightning symbols encompassing the entire thing. And a pair of solid-gold 2-inch high-heeled boots.

There was a pair of swords in an X on the back of her waist, kept in place with a strange silver belt, (Cross Erazur's belt) each was in a golden scabbard three feet five inches long and marked with more symbols of lightning. The handles were nine inches long of pure silver, with several topazes inlaid into the crossguards, which resembled a plus sign.

She chuckled, and he noticed the bluish and golden electricity that crackled along her body, immediately ranking her as AT LEAST an A-Class threat. "That's very good. I'm happy you're not a pompous asshole."

The Raikage raised an eyebrow at her comment, and his respect for such a powerful warrior rose up a few notches. "Well I'm not. And as much as I hate to say it, I have to know your business here."

She grinned at him, and the electricity went wilder. "I hope you won't mind a battle."

Now it was E's turn to laugh. "Are you kidding me?!" He threw off his robes, electricity covering his entire body as he lunged at her. "I've been waiting for this!"

Her smile widened, and brought an electrified kick to match his huge fist. "Now that's more like it."

That was all she said, before their attacks met each other, and the resulting shockwave ravaged the room, a bright flash blinding everyone for a few seconds.

The light died down, revealing the two locked in their previous positions, with shit-eating grins on their faces. "Fantastic." She proclaimed, and the Raikage was about to make a comment of his own when the door was kicked off its hinges, ninja pouring into the room.

"R-Raikage-sama! Who is this woman?!" One shouted.

The female lightning-user frowned. "I hate it when people interrupt a battle."

"Bah! It's their job! You can't blame them for it!" The Raikage bellowed.

She shrugged, despite having one leg in the air. "Hmph. I still hate it. Advent! You and your girlfriend better deal with these assholes!"

The moment she finished saying the last word, two figures jumped into the room from the broken window, landing softly beside her.

One, a man in a black trenchcoat; buttoned-up at the chest and midsection, looking to be in his teens, with short black hair and red eyes. He stood at 5'10, with an unnaturally pale but alluring complexion. Strapped to his thighs were two, twin strange swords.

They had an unusual hilt, a completely black, twelve-inch long rod, whose last five inches was in a hollow half-circle. The blades were two feet long, paper thin, and curved, widened, and flowed in a way that bizarrely resembled a wave of water. But the steel the blades had been made from was unnerving. It was a red the color of blood, and shone unnaturally with barely-concealed malice. As if the blades were sentient.

The other, a tanned woman five feet eleven inches tall, with shoulder length brown curls and black eyes, dressed in tight-fitting leather clothes and metal plating. What were really intimidating about her though, were the numerous weapons she had on her person, ranging from a rocket launcher on her back (resembling the Kalina Ann from Devil May Cry, complete with a pure silver bayonet), several Uzis, a pump-action shotgun, two Glocks, and a dozen grenades, along with two KABAR knifes tucked in her leather boots, not to mention the flamethrower and the liquid-hydrogen shooter. Strapped to her thigh was a foot long, completely black knife, slightly curving, with a small orb the size of a grown man's thumbnail at the base of the blade that resembled, and glowed like, a full moon.

The boy glanced at the electrified female. "Auntie Jade, should I kill, or merely disable?" He asked in a cultured voice.

"You can kill, but I prefer disabled." She confirmed.

The boy nodded. "Very well."

A jounin scowled at him. "You think you and that bitch of yours can take us on?! You're dreaming kid!" He proclaimed, charging at Advent, charged lightning readied upon his palm.

Advent walked towards him, then disappeared, appearing behind the ninja and continued walking.

The Kumo nin blinked, before turning around and yelling at him to face him.

Advent turned his gaze towards the man, and he stopped, vainly trying to keep his bladder under control as his primal instincts screamed at him to run, to get as far as he could away from this...this **monster**. The red-eyed boy scoffed at him. "Don't even bother fool. You're already dead." The man gasped as a spiderweb of bloody lines appeared all over the man's body, and he fell apart into so many pieces of sliced meat. The ninjas gasped, and many took a step or two back in fear. "You dared insult my mate. An act not even gods would dare do. For your insolence, your punishment is death." He declared.

The gun-toting woman chuckled. "Oh, you didn't have. I was going to kill him myself."

Advent rolled his eyes. "Bloody, you needn't have dirty your hands with his blood, it is unbecoming of royalty such as you."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "I was going to shoot him. No dirtying my hands there." ***BAMBAMBAMABAMBAM* **"Just. Like. Now."

He blinked before turning around to see five ninjas dead behind him, a headshot for each one. "I would have been fine."

She tapped him on the head cutely. "Aww, but one of them might have hit your face, and you know how much I love you face." Advent blushed at the comment.

"**Lariat!"** A shout was Advent's only warning before an electrified arm slammed into his chest, sending him careening into, and through, the wall, falling to his death.

"Oh yeah! Score for Killer Bee!" Kirabi, proclaimed.

_click_

He felt something cold and hard touch the side of his face.

Bloody pulled the trigger of the shotgun armed with incendiary rounds. "You're dead asshole."

A gout of flame erupted in the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Fuck. That hurt." Bloody swore as she removed herself from the smoking crater on the wall, glaring at Nii Yugito, the jinchuuriki of the Nibi. She was also the one who used the fire jutsu on her.

Yugito didn't reply, opting to make handseals for another jutsu. The sound of wings flapping made her glance at the window. An action that saved her life, for she wouldn't have dodged the dark form if she hadn't.

It was fast, very fast, but its angle was easily determined, and she only had to duck. Even then though, she barely made it. Such was the speed of the creature.

Advent slammed into the wall, which exploded outwards. He beat his bat-like wings in the opposite direction to stop his flight. He turned towards the Kumo ninjas, glaring at Yugito. "You. You're next." He charged, a pale hand with longer-than-normal nails raised in the air, falling down at her like Death's hand.

It clashed with Bee's lightning enhanced blade, scraping the electrified steel but doing no damage. He withdrew, studying his slightly burnt, but otherwise unharmed hand with detached interest. "You're good." He drawled boredly.

Kirabi grinned. "Of course I am!" He agreed wholeheartedly.

Advent glanced at Bloody, frowning. She shrugged at him. "You can take him. I've got a bone to pick with this skank." She waved him off.

He smiled, before his wings unfurled, more than twenty feet of midnight-black batlike wings spread open like a night terror, making an intimidating figure. Kirabi barely had time to marvel at the sight before Advent crashed into him with unreal speed, colliding with, and through, the wall.

Yugito didn't have time to gawk, as Bloody unstrapped her rocket launcher, kneeling on one knee and locking onto her. Before Bloody could fire, Jade glanced at the Raikage, her foot still locked with his arm, before disengaging and spinning into a roundhouse kick.

E met her attack with a lightning-enhanced fist, followed instantly by an elbow. One that sent Jade falling over the windowsill. She brought out her swords, twin, three feet three inches long of gleaming gold and delphinium adorned with sigils emerald green phoenixes. There were vague lines on the blade's length every millimeter or so until the last inch on the tip, numerous but vague enough to be invisible unless closely studied.

She slammed them on the tower, halting her fall.

"Boom." Bloody pulled the trigger, and the rocket erupted from the weapon.

Yugito threw a fireball into it.

The Raikage proceeded to jump down, an electricity-covered heel ready for her as the resulting explosion threw everyone still in the room off their feet.

She grinned at him despite the dire situation. "Stubborn. A great fighter indeed."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Advent continued his flight, diving to the ground just like, and as fast as, a Peregrine Falcon, (400 kph) Kirabi in tow. The guardian of Kumo paled as he realized the implications. "Uh-oh."

Despite the screaming winds, Advent somehow managed to hear him. "Uh-oh indeed, you bastard." He threw Kirabi to the ground, while simultaneously flapping his wings backwards to prevent himself from crashing.

Killer Bee activated his chakra cloak. And that was all that saved him as he crashed into the earth, slamming like a meteor and gouging a long trench on the ground.

Advent landed lightly on the ground, his wings at his sides. He raised an eyebrow. "You're still alive? I'm surprised."

Kirabi stood up, deactivating the cloak and relatively none the worse for wear. He grinned. "Man, it's been so long since I fought someone as good as you! So it's time to get serious!" Advent's respect for the man rose up several notches as Bee proceeded to bring out all seven of his swords, wielding them in his unusual stance, along with the lightning chakra flow. Advent had seen more bizarre styles, and he could clearly see the purpose of Kirabi's. It was formidable.

He smiled, before grasping the first part (the rod) of his hilts and unsheathing them, he pointed one at Bee, the unnaturally shape of the blade making the light shining upon it distort. "Bring it."

The Kumo Nin charged, spinning like a corkscrew all the time, and Advent fought to keep up, parrying wildly at speeds that literally made his arms a blur, but vainly losing ground to avoid getting hit. Advent spun, his wings aiding him, parrying two blades, before reversing in a snap, a single blade diving in for a stab at a place where he predicted Bee's spin would put his chest at.

Kumo's protector almost missed it, but managed to do so at the last instant, slowing his spin and enabling one of his blades to block Advent's. Unfortunately, since he slowed, Advent managed to bring a hit thanks to the slightly weaker defense. He cut a line across one arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, and Bee jumped back, examining the wound. It was shallow, but the fact remained that he had been hit, and he might have been disabled.

He narrowed his eyes at the black cloaked figure. Those blades of his were a real piece of work. The unnatural curves were intentionally made that way. Some made his blades lock with his, making it hard to retract them, others did the opposite, making his blades slice across his or harder to lock on, another made the vibrations caused from two blades impacting to increase, numbing his hand, and yet another was made for tearing out flesh, a bleeder edge. Heck, the entire thing seemed to blur and waver thanks to an optical illusion caused by light refracting on its irregular shape!

The blades probably had more abilities, and he wasn't going to wait to find out.

He charged again, and Advent rose to the challenge, once more parrying with his swords. This time though, he wasn't losing ground as much. He was getting a read on his moves.

Kirabi narrowed his eyes, before suddenly reversing his spin, catching Advent completely off guard, and several large gashes opened up on him. A deep gouge on his left arm, a deep slash on his left thigh that reached to the bone, a deep X from his stomach to his chest, and shallow slice on his neck that nonetheless reached the jugular.

Advent's eyes were wide with shock as he fell to the ground, blood pooling around his body.

Bee sighed in relief. The guy was GOOD, and he probably would have had to use Hachibi's chakra to beat him, and big brother didn't like it when he did it in Kumo. He was wondering about those wings though. Maybe it was a kekkei genkai?

'_**Bee! On guard! He's stirring!'**_ He turned around at once, and gaped as Advent proceeded to stand up, his wounds staunching their bleeding and healing at an accelerated rate. After a few minutes, not even scars would remain.

Advent smiled grimly, blood dripping down his clothes. "I shouldn't have underestimated you." He grasped the second part (the half-circle) of his swords in a reverse grip. "So, you've got seven blades right?" He asked.

Kirabi frowned as he wondered what his enemy was thinking when the blades separated, sliding across the hollow half circle until there were seven copies of the original blade in each weapon, spanning a half-circle. The new blades were thinner than ever, and he understood; the original blade was seven blades of the same shape stuck together. He stared at Advent.

"I hope you can keep up with fourteen." He proclaimed, legs crouching, the balls of his feet not touching the ground, ready for a quick sprint. Advent breathed deeply, and he grasped his blades tighter. "Before we fight, I hope I could have your name, great warrior." He requested respectfully in his refined voice.

Kirabi laughed, labeling this guy as someone he would like if they weren't fighting. "Kirabi is my name. But you can call me Killer Bee! And I hope you introduce yourself to Mr. Eight-tailed Beast!"

Advent gave a smile. "I am Argentus Veruscordis Phillemos, Son of Safiria Ishval, the Queen of the Crimson Kingdom of Vampires and Cross Azala Erazur, King of Lacroa. My friends call me Advent, and though we meet at the field of battle, I consider you as one. Oh, and give my greetings to Mr. Eight-tailed Beast."

Kirabi gave another laugh. "That was a long introduction Advent! Well, let's go!" A chakra cloak coalesced around him, and they charged.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jade pulled her blades out of the wall, grabbing onto the stone with her hands and, in an impressive display of upper body strength and flexibility, pulled her body up to meet the Raikage's electrified foot with a similarly electrified double-footed kick.

Another explosion of light and electricity flashed, and her handholds crumbled from the explosion. She fell to the ground, this time too far away from the wall to grab onto it with her swords.

Oh so the Raikage thought.

She swung her swords at the tower, and the Raikage discovered what the vague lines were for.

The swords separated, each line a mark for a segment, and the blades reached out, each segment connected by a black, smooth and thin line. The tip lodged itself into the tower, and the segments started to connect once again.

The Raikage grabbed onto one as he fell, and it slowed his fall enough to allow him to land safely on one balcony. He looked up as Jade's falling form came into view, blades flashing.

He jumped off, and Jade punched though the concrete balcony. He landed safely on the ground, the balcony being close enough to the ground to allow him to fall without harm. He let his lightning armor form as Jade alighted on the ground with nary a sound. She grinned at him. "Ready?"

His answer was a wide grin and to appear in front of her, protrusions sprouting from the gold bangle bracelets he wore as he punched at her with his right fist. She brought a blade up, deflecting the blow, stabbing with the other. He turned sideways, countering with a lariat.

Jade gasped as the titanic blow collided with her chest. She was blown away, smashing into a wall of a random house, breaking it and the table inside the room. She put a hand on her chest, her head pounding painfully, and gritted her teeth when it came out covered in blood and bits of flesh and bone.

The Raikage stepped in, frowning at her. He shook his head. "I thought you'd be better than this." He turned around, walking away in disgust.

He stopped when a lightning came down from the skies, engulfing the house in a pillar of electricity. The lightning stopped coming down, but what remained turned into a large dome. Then, he heard a sound resembling a vacuum, and the lightning was seemingly _pulled_ into the epicenter, before going silent.

He heard a footstep, then another, until Jade came out of the smoky ruins.

Her wound had healed, and her body was practically covered in electricity. She gazed at him with eyes wreathed in blinding-white light, then grinned. "I won't be taken by surprise again." Energy gathered at her back, and a blazing phoenix of lightning formed, bellowing a static screech, before rising to the air and stooping down to dive-bomb him.

He jumped back, and the ground he had been on erupted in blinding incandescence.

He would have died had that hit him.

The phoenix rose from the destruction, eyeing him like a piece of meat, before flapping its wings and rising once more.

"Raiton: Rairyuu!" **(Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon)** He yelled boldly, and a dragon of lightning formed from his outstretched fists, meeting the phoenix in battle.

The two mythical beasts roared in defiance of each other, biting, scratching, and tearing off chunks of electricity from each other. They clashed one last time, bursting in an explosion of blinding light.

He grinned at her. "NOW, we're talking."

Jade answered by segmenting her blades, swinging the two bladed lines above her head, faster and faster, until it seemed as if she was lifting two large disks of bright electricity in each hand. She charged.

He activated his lightning armor and met her storm of power.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yugito coughed, covering her mouth from the smoke as she stood up from the wreckage.

What kind of weapon was _that?_ It resembled the 'rifles' the daimyos armed some of their men these days but a HELL lot more powerful. Currently though, she had more important matters.

She sidestepped, more projectiles from Bloody passing through the smoke. It had almost hit her.

Somewhere, a man suddenly screamed falling down with a _'thump'_, before probably another shot from the weapon-toting lady ended his misery. This was bad. The woman was REALLY good at keeping herself undetected, and her projectile weapons wouldn't cause her to reveal herself to them.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa!"** One of the ninjas used the technique, and a burst of wind pushed against the smoke, jettisoning it from the room. The ninja who used the jutsu immediately looked for her, but unfortunately...

She had been behind him.

A bang from her weapon ended his life, brain matter and blood spilling onto the ground.

Bloody sighed. "Darn. I was hoping to shoot all of you dead through the smokescreen." She shrugged. "Aw well, nothing worthwhile is done easily, they always say."

A ninja screamed his outrage at her, rushing in while making handseals. **"Raiton: Raikyu!" **(Lightning Release: Lightning Ball/s) He launched the spheres of electricity at her, drawing his kunai to finish her off if the jutsu failed.

She sidestepped them with unnaturally ease, yawning, _yawning!_ At him.

He growled, reaching her and stabbing in.

Her eyes narrowed, and Yugito barely saw her grab the man's arm, twist it, then wrench it free from his shoulder, blood spraying the air like some sick fountain. The man screamed, before she grabbed his neck, lifting him up in one hand with surprising ease. He struggled, before a sudden snap sounded across the room, and he went limp, blood gushing from his shoulder and dripping from the corners of his lips.

Bloody licked some of the blood on her lips, before scowling and flinging the man away like discarded trash. "Yeuch. He tastes horrible." She complained, unmindful of her bloody appearance.

Yugito growled at her, an animalistic sound that came from her throat, made subtly more terrifying by being the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi.

Bloody looked at her, and **growled**. It wasn't like her subtly unnerving one, oh no, this one was different. It was a bold statement of inhumanity, of her apparent superiority and sheer ferocity. Many of the ninjas shuddered and stumbled backwards, the bestial roar shaking them to their very core.

Yugito herself stood stock still, Nibi going silent and gaping wordlessly at Bloody in her mind. The Bijuu gulped. _**'Kitten, we are in a BAD situation...'**_

She forced down a shiver. _'Why is that?'_

'_**We're facing a werewolf. And they HATE cats. And I don't think giving her that 'Growl of Challenge' was a good idea.'**_

Aw shit.

She had seen and heard of stories of werewolves before, and if she was anything like they were in the stories...

'_**Oh, they're a LOT worse than that. They're not oversized upright animals like they were in the stories. They're intelligent, ferocious, and most of all; THINKING creatures. And GODS, they're friggin hard to kill.'**_

Yugito gulped once more as Bloody stalked towards her, nails and fangs very slowly lengthening, and she could see slits in her black irises, blacker than black, such a big difference from black it was entirely another color.

She didn't know what a 'Growl of Challenge' was, but the name itself told her enough. And if a werewolf was as bad as Nibi said...

Bloody pounced.

'_**Run Kitten, run!'**_ She didn't need any more prompting, she scrammed.

She heard the wood groan heavily as her claws gouged across them with barely any effort, and she could feel the werewolf chasing after her, despite the fact that she couldn't hear anything.

She took a glance behind her.

It was fast, VERY fast. More than keeping up with chakra-induced leaps. And she was silent, her footfalls making nary a sound. Crap.

She started making handseals, before turning around in mid jump and filling the hallway with fire. Bloody screeched to a stop, unstrapping one of her weapons as she did so. The flames engulfed her before she could use it, and Yugito sighed in relief.

She froze when the temperature fell down so quickly and deeply she could see her breath. She looked back at the werewolf.

The fire was completely gone, and her section of the hallway had frozen. She was scowling heavily, and in her hands, her weapon was smoking a cold, bluish haze. She pointed it at her.

Yugito turned and started to run away. She stopped.

Slowly she turned back towards Bloody. _'Sorry Nibi, you may be scared of her, and maybe I am too, but that doesn't mean I have to abandon the mission.'_ She said to her Bijuu, controlling her fears.

Nibi chuckled heartily. _**'I'm not scared of her Kitten. I could kill a hundred werewolves were I in my true form. I'm worried for YOU.'**_

Yugito smiled mentally at her Bijuu, but never gave more of an answer.

"Finally going to face me like woman, skank?" Bloody asked, smiling sadistically.

Yugito replied with another hallway-filling fire jutsu. Bloody fired the weapon, and a jet of misty blue liquid slammed into the fire, resulting in a cloud of steam.

Yugito immediately set up wires in front of her, casting some fire jutsu on them, making them able to cut through flesh with any small amount of pressure. She took several steps back and waited for the inevitable. Bloody was a werewolf, and no doubt, she was skilled enough to avoid those. She just hoped it would give her enough time to-

"Eee-YOW!" Bloody yelped, having made contact with several of the wires.

Yugito sweatdropped. _'Then again...'_

Her eyes widened when she saw Bloody pick out another weapon. "You like playing with fire huh, don't ya. Well I'm gonna make you pay you blond bimbo, I'll burn you alive!"

She jumped back, just as Bloody pulled the trigger.

A gigantic gout of flame once again filled the hallway, bright red and dark orange in color, it razed towards her with surprising speed. She cast a goukakyou, temporarily keeping it at bay. She furrowed her brow when a small cylindrical object was thrown at her.

Time seemed to stop just as it came a foot short of her face.

It exploded.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Killer Bee stopped and looked up to the tower as it exploded, and a gigantic, vaguely feline shape rose out of it.

He glanced at Advent. He was focusedly staring at it. He furrowed his brows. "This...was not in the plan."

Killer Bee frowned at him. "What plan?"

Advent started walking towards the Nibi. "My Aunt came here to settle down for a few years, and she wanted to find an apprentice to pass down her talents. And, quote her: 'What better way to find someone suitable than fighting the best this village has to offer?'"

Kirabi blinked, before staring at him. "You mean...you fought the Kumo's elite ANBU, its two jinchuuriki, and The Raikage, ALL to find a suitable apprentice?!"

Advent nodded. "Yes."

Kirabi very slowly grinned, before laughing loudly. "Oh that's just rich! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Big bro's gonna blow a gasket when he hears this! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He wiped a tear from his eye. "So you're gonna stop little Yugito?"

He nodded. "We can't have our future home getting wrecked, can't we?"

Kirabi nodded happily, and two headed towards the rampaging Nibi.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jade scowled when she saw the Nibi. "Drat. I TOLD Bloody not to piss off the Jinchuuriki."

Raikage gaped at the Bijuu. He glanced at Jade. He had to take down the Nibi NOW, before it caused too much damage, but he had to take care of Jade first.

The Lacroan held up a palm, and he stopped. "No time for fighting old man. This thing's gonna wreck this place, and I don't like my future home to be a bunch of ruins."

The Raikage had a confused expression on his face.

Jade proceeded to explain. "You see, I'm a lightning user. The best there is. And when I came to the Elemental Continent, I was trying to find a suitable successor. Then I heard of Kumo, where they say the best lightning users reside. So I came here to settle down for a few years to find and train my apprentice. And of course, I had this brilliant plan of very quickly finding an apprentice, by fighting Kumo's elite!"

...

...

E's face reddened. "You're telling me...that you _KILLED_ several of my subordinates, just to find a damn apprentice?!"

Jade nodded.

The Raikage breathed deeply. It would not be a good idea to let this chance to have such a valuable asset escape the village. But heck, this was EXACTLY the kind of complex thinking that he hated was needed to being Raikage.

The Nibi gave a roar, and he nodded begrudgingly at Jade.

She gave a grin, her eyes still glowing static white from her lightning. "Good. And as a token of loyalty, we'll take care of it on our own. You don't need any of your men to subdue the Nibi this time."

She started shining brighter, and the Raikage covered his eyes just in time as Jade turned into raw, living lightning, moving at the speed of light to the Bijuu.

He stared, jaw hanging open.

She wasn't kidding when she said she was the best.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bloody grinned as she crossed her arms, blocking the burst of hellfire from the Bijuu.

It tried to stomp on her, but she jumped high, landing on said appendage, before running up and dropkicking the beast on the nose.

It staggered, roaring wildly, claws swiping the air.

She landed away from it.

It was easy to stay one step ahead of it. It fought much like Jareth, her best friend's Devilcat. Only much bigger, less swift, and a lot less powerful. She fired up the liquid hydrogen and shot at its eyes, grinning when it hit, and the Bijuu gave another roar, swiping at its eyes.

She brought out her completely black knife, the Knife of the Midnight Moon, and rushed in, jumping onto its chest, hanging on and hacking wildly. It was a being of chakra, so she wouldn't be able to truly hurt it unless she hit its core: Yugito.

It was a mere enlarged chakra cloak taken more definite form, with the knife it would be easy to dive into it as if it was a moving lake.

She was successful, and she swam deeper, her clothes, weapons and skin barely singed by the acidic chakra. The only reason she yelped a while ago was thanks more to surprise than actual damage. Now, with her prepared, her skin hardened nearly to her true form, and the great knife in her hands, it wouldn't prove fatal to her.

She finally spotted Yugito.

The girl had had most of her top blown off, barely hiding her decency, and the ugly wounds she originally had had healed thanks to the overflow of chakra.

And she was glaring at her.

The sudden massive explosion of chakra was unexpected, and she was blown away, whirling head over heels, head spinning.

A pair of black-clad arms that carried the scent of blood and expensive wine caught her. She blinked up at Advent. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Dazed, but alright." She admitted, and he let her down.

There was a flash of static, and Jade was beside him, formed of living lightning. She shook her head at her. _"I tOld yoU tO nOt geT tHeM aNgrY eNouGH tO uSE tHeiR BiJuU fOrMs."_ She berated her, her voice static and hard to understand.

She shrunk under her gaze and nodded meekly.

Jade gave a sigh that resembled screeching static. "_VeRy wEll, I'll tAke cArE oF iT."_

The Raikage managed to arrive just in time to witness her rise into the air, her energy levels rising steadily.

Bee gulped as the skies turned dark, and electricity lanced from cloud to cloud, never stopping but always multiplying, until the sky itself was lit as bright as the sun.

The lightning grew larger, descending slowly, taking form as it did so, and a gigantic phoenix of lightning formed. Not the three-story sized one she had made in her battle with E, but a titanic Phoenix larger than any summon, whose wings spanned the sky nearly to the horizon, whose size dwarfed any Bijuu known to them.

It screeched, a terrifying, grating static sound that hurt their ears and made them stumble, before falling down to the Nibi.

The Bijuu meowed fearfully, before its talons caught it, bringing it into the air, and the Phoenix's glow brightened.

"Get down! Don't look at it!" E shouted, and the shinobi did as he said, just as the phoenix exploded, filling the earth with light that no doubt reached past the horizons.

Advent frowned as he put on the specialized sunglasses, and the light became bearable enough for him to maneuver to Yugito's falling form, catching her before she could fall.

The light cleared for the ninjas, and E had no doubts as to the decision of the council and ninjas once he mentioned them becoming citizens.

The sky was still relatively bright, and Advent was visible in the air, his wings flapping powerfully, cloak fluttering majestically in the wind, Yugito in his arms.

Bloody and Jade were on the top of the tower.

Bloody had a shit-eating-grin on her face, her arms crossed, her posture practically shouting superiority, while Jade stood beside her, no longer living lightning and leaning on the railings, her swords in her hands and lightning racing across her body.

If something THAT badass didn't make them want to kiss the ground they walked on, he didn't know what would.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jade glanced at a group of genin studying her carefully, instead of outright gaping in shock and reverence.

She pointed them out to Bee. "Hey, you know those kids?"

He grinned. "Yeah! Those are my team!"

She gave a similar grin. "I know who my apprentice is."

Bloody raised an eyebrow. "The blonde one?"

Jade nodded.

Bloody shrugged before giving a menacing grin to them. The dark-skinned red-haired girl glared back at her. "Oooh, I know who MINE is..."

Bee blinked at them, wondering if this was good news or not...

Advent clapped his shoulder, Yugito already being sent to the hospital. "Depends. Bloody's will be pretty damn violent, if not outright psychotic. While Auntie's..." He sighed. "I believe we might be carrying some pretty heavy shopping bags in the future..."

Bee gulped.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**AWESOMENESS! I'm done!**

**Oh yeah, do what do you guys think? Hopefully, you think it's awesome.**

**OMAKE: A funny situation of Advent's during the war.**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Advent stared at his team.

And stared.

And stared...

"What the fuck are you looking at, you asshole?! Huh? Is something wrong brat?!" A golden-armored paladin swore at him.

"B-brother, please prohibit such vulgar language, he's probably just surprised with our appearance..." His brother, a dark-armored Death Knight tried to calm him down.

The paladin proceeded to swing his axe at him, and it devolved into a situation where the Paladin kept chasing after the Death Knight in a tight circle, swinging his axe wildly.

"Go to hell you pacifistic motherfucker! You'll NEVER be able to use the arts of death for good!" The paladin screamed.

"Well at least I don't go around asking people if they're Christian and killing them if they're not. And accidentally bringing them back to life whenever you say 'for the light'!...and I never had sex with mother!" The Death Knight said back.

A psychotic paladin and a pacifist Death Knight?!

...

...

Advent palmed his face, before looking at the others: A red-armored pyromancer in bright red-orange robes, with a black human skull on fire for a head, a gray-robed mind mage chuckling insanely under his breath, a necromancer in a black cloak with a spider symbol on the back playing with cute undead gerbils, (cute being a relative word, since the necromancer's version of cute gerbils were one-story high monster gerbils with acid breath) and a man with a typewriter...an OLD typewriter...

"Are you even SUPPOSED to be here?" He asked the man with the typewriter.

"Umm...no. It was probably a mistake in the records."

This just kept getting better and better. He looked at the pyromancer. "Anything special I should know about you? Allergic to dustbunnies? Secretly a pacifist? Scared of fire?"

He shook his head at the first two, but paled (his fire turned white) at the third.

Advent stared.

And stared...

He groaned and slammed his head on a tree. "What about you, Necromancer?"

"I like undead cute things!" He, no. SHE, raised her hands in the air, the hood falling down to reveal the face of a young blonde girl.

He stared at her, then at his 'team'.

He groaned. "We are SO dead..."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

**And cut! **

**Ha! I always did find that one extremely funny!**

**And before I finish this, I want you guys to choose which one should be on the next chapter: A. Another chapter in Konoha, where Sally FINALLY gets Hinata as her apprentice. B. The unkillable emotionless soldier. C. The Goth that can devour anything and the world's greatest thief!**

**I've already written a thousand words for each, so you choose!**

**Also, thanks to **Bloodydarkwolf **for Bloody. You rock!**

**Review people!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Naruto: Paths Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. There, now will you lawyers PLEASE stop stalking me?**

**Oh my god! Forgive me! I couldn't get the Hinata scene in! It apparently requires a proper reason for Sally to go to the Hyuuga compound, followed by her seeing her getting mistreated.**

**That and the fact that I had to make Naruto known to her, and with Crimson giving Itachi a taste of an Assassin Avedon, I think I've written enough for a new chapter.**

**Please forgive me! I PROMISE, the next one will have Hinata in it!**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kakashi stared at Crimson as he slowly unraveled the cloth, the reforged White Fang gleaming in the light of the shop.

With reverence, he picked it up, one hand on the handle and another under the flat of the blade. "Magnificent. It's as if it was never broken. But what are these...?"

"Runes. A...'cousin', of seals you can say. It's basically a seal, only it is powered by my special kind of energy and not chakra. They're passive runes, and will help you quite nicely. Forgive me if I won't be helping you in finding the uses out." Crimson gladly explained.

Kakashi studied the markings, and frowned at its apparent amount. "How many are there?"

"Seventy-five." Was the bland answer, and Kakashi marveled at the number. "Generally, the power of seals and runes isn't dependent on its size. Writing them correctly is more important. People thought it was so because of the difficulty in writing it correctly on a smaller scale, resulting in mistakes, which resulted in decreased efficiency. I suspect you'll find the blade's new abilities to be quite satisfying."

Kakashi nodded in approval, and gratefully gave Crimson the hefty payment for his services. In all honesty, he had only asked him to repair it. The runes were an unexpected (but gratifying) favor. It was certainly more than one million six-hundred thousand yen could buy.

"Oh yeah! Now you can stop complaining about that stupid sword of yours! How about we have a spar and see which sword is better?" Anko proclaimed, a sheathed sword strapped horizontally across the back of her waist.

She had ordered one for herself, and the unsheathed weapon was a magnificent, curving silver blade of a kris, with a green, snake-style hilt, whose fangs bit onto the blade itself and had emeralds for eyes. The blade was sixteen inches long, with a seven-inch hilt, an overall length of twenty-three inches.

Venenum Regina la Vesica (Venom Empress's Blade) was one of his greatest work, and quite impressive if he didn't say so himself. The blade constantly sucked chakra from her whenever she reached a certain threshold, said threshold being when her chakra was above ninety-eight percent. It would store chakra that she could later access, and in truth, you wouldn't believe how much chakra senior ninjas actually generate. Its max storage level; four Kage-level chakra pools, would certainly give her an edge in a fight.

That, and its ability to create ANY kind of poison at the cost of chakra. Even his King would be wary of a blade that could produce Deathvenom. Though the production of said most powerful poison in existence required the chakra for a C-level jutsu for each drop. He would have to downgrade that later...

He yawned, idly reading another one of the black-banded books that he regularly procured from the storage blocks inside the cabinet. "I was up for two nights making that. I haven't slept in forty-eight hours, so if you two are going to argue or fight, do it where my head won't hurt from hearing anything."

Anko snickered. "You're too devoted to that schedule of yours that you'd stay up until it's time to close. And if you have energy to do something as boring as that, then you can watch us fight!"

Crimson sighed, before blinking at the window.

He stood up, closing his book firmly, walking to it and viewing Sally's shop on the other side of the street.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's a hundred thousand yen each, or nothing." Sally said with finality, grinning infuriatingly at the Hyuuga women as she lounged on a crimson sofa, dressed in a, erm... _loose_ yukata that was dangerously close to slipping into immodesty.

Hyuuga Setsuna couldn't help but blush as she glared at her. The way Sally looked at her made her think of a panther as it looked upon a particularly-savory piece of meat.

Or a lesbian looking upon a specific kind of woman to her tastes...

She looked back at the beautiful clothes that she and her entourage had picked in the shop.

While some (ALL) of them were a bit too... _daring_ for her tastes. (some of the clothes she had worn were too close to revealing her breasts and panties for her comfort) The beauty more than made up for it!

They shone marvelously, and were sown with such precision and skill she could see the individual feathers of one that bore the mark of a rising phoenix, or the each tilting curve of a carefully-sown rose, and many more. And the cloth it was made from...what cloth! It was incredibly smooth like silk, came in such vivid colors, and shone like the rays of the sun on the sea so much that the beings sewn into the cloth seemed alive!

But the cost! A hundred thousand yen for each article of clothing?! Absurd!

She thought about her cousin, Kasumi, the first Hyuuga to have met and bought from Sally, and how she had turned heads everywhere she went. She had undergone more than a change of wardrobe, if the sudden sensual swing of her hips and that damnable smile on her face that stirred the loins of men were anything to go by.

She had happily told them where she bought the clothes from, heck, she even had the address! But she couldn't help but wonder how carefree Kasumi had ever gotten along with the sensual seductress in front of her.

"You KNOW the price is fair. You've never seen this level of workmanship before, and the materials for the cloth..." She had a twinkle in her eye. "You have no idea how hard it is to acquire them." Indeed, acquiring webbing from Prima-Terrania's Amadeus Spiders' Queen was downright suicide. And the mandibles from the planet's monstrous cockroaches were the only things that could be used to make contraptions to sew the webbing into cloth.

They weren't just buying fancy clothes, they were unwittingly buying better armor than anything this world had yet to offer. She wondered how long it took for them to notice the durability of the cloth.

But these Hyuuga were so darn stuck-up she couldn't help but pity them! They had the goods, but their upbringing prevented them from showing them off!

Sally heaved a sigh, looking at her with something akin to...pity? She stood up with a flourish, her yukata dragging lightly on the ground, every step radiating sexuality and poise, and Setsuna blushed harder.

She stepped up to her, fingers curling at her chin. "Honestly, you look really cute with that blush of yours. But women your age shouldn't look cute." She licked her lips sensually, and Setsuna shivered. "Put a pout on that face, lean slightly a bit, show more of those lovely hips and strut when you walk. Men would be dropping left and right if you did that." Setsuna's face had reached a shade of red rivaling a tomato. Since when did she start giving out tips on seduction?

Sally sighed. "You Hyuuga are too prim and proper. You honestly need professional help." She held up two fingers. "Twenty percent off, and that's final. And the only reason I'm doing this is because I hate it when talents and god-given gifts are wasted." Setsuna was too embarrassed to say anything, but Sally took it as a yes.

Sally glanced at the other blushing Hyuuga and shook head. "That's it. I am going to be visiting you sometime. Count on it." She gave a look to Setsuna and the flushed branch house Hyuuga immediately wrote a check with the signatures from all of the other five Hyuuga.

Sally gave her an unnervingly sensual smile, before taking it daintily from her fingers. She smiled. "Done." She said, a closed fan in one hand as she snapped her fingers.

Four vaguely humanoid shapes rose from the shadows, standing at attention. "Kindly help my valued customers with their new clothes."

The Shadowmen obeyed, carefully folding and readying them for transfer. They stepped out of the shop, and seemingly glared at the sun before dutifully packing the newly-bought clothes into the Hyuuga's carriage. They faded back into the shadows after their job was done.

The Hyuuga stared at her. She gave them another mocking grin. "Shadowmen. They're good workers, carries enough individuality to think for themselves but are subservient enough to obey everything you say. They didn't help with the sewing though. I did that all by myself."

"Who are you?" One woman asked.

She snapped the fan open to cover her mouth. "I am but a simple seamstress with extraordinary talents." She finished ominously.

A shadow passed over them and they suddenly found themselves back in their carriage.

They looked out the window and saw Sally winking at them from the shop's door. Then, as she faded from view, they noticed the weights on their laps. There was a red-wrapped parcel on each of their laps. As the carriage drove back to the Hyuuga compound, they opened the parcels...

And blushed profusely at the contents.

It was a box full of skimpy, silk and lace lingerie. The kind that would leave you better off going around buck-naked rather than wear them.

Along with a letter filled with detailed tips for each of them.

One profusely encouraged the one next to her to wear clothes with plunging necklines to show more of those 'magnificent breasts'.

The lipstick mark at the end of each letter didn't exactly reinforce Setsuna's beliefs that Sally wasn't a lesbian either.

Exactly HOW Sally knew their sizes she didn't know.

And she didn't want to find out either.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crimson tsked at Sally, appearing via Doorway. "Did you HAVE to do that?"

Sally nodded seriously. "Of course. They have such great bodies and raw talent and stupid Hyuuga breeding ruins it all. I'm not going to let such an adversity continue. And besides, you messed with the clan leader right?"

Crimson sighed, giving up trying to understand why she considered such things so important. "Anyway, I heard some news of Bryan in Mist. It may be Krado or Martin, but I doubt it."

She nodded. "It could be anyone of them. Bryan feels for the bloodline users, Martin would revel in such a genocide, and Krado is a human weapon of war. But Krado is making a name as a bounty hunter somewhere else, and Martin is laying low, so it's most probably Bryan. Good to know he isn't so hung up about being separated from his mate."

Crimson agreed. "You can never be sure about the guy. He doesn't know how to show emotions in human form remember? But then again, we're talking about the fate of his entire race here."

She shrugged. "He takes things on logically in human form. He logically knows that there exists a universe where he wouldn't be separated from Nidala and his species will continue."

Crimson tilted his chin in agreement. "Then let us hope he doesn't transform any time soon." He looked at the clothes. "I didn't know you were traipsing around in Prima Terrania in your free time."

She grinned. "It was pretty hard to catch one of the Queens EXACTLY when they were weakened completely." There could be only two Amadeus Spider Queens in the entire universe. The current queen and the newborn queen. Each newborn Queen was trained to be the best, and at her peak, would challenge the old Queen in a fight to the death for supremacy. This way, the spiders would always keep on breeding stronger and stronger Queens.

Crimson blinked. The animals that lived on Prima Terrania's harsh terrain were as powerful as, or more so, than a devil. The only way to win was to use your intelligence. He could easily imagine the amount of work needed to formulate a successful plan to catch one Queen as they neared the end of the deathfight. It wasn't easy work.

Sally giggled. "Come on, you know I'm not some dumb everyday bimbo."

"So...you have a Queen right here with you?"

She nodded.

He shook his head. "You're lucky they're comparatively easy to maintain." The things could eat anything that had been turned to edible mush by their corrosive venom. Even hard rocks would do. He shook his head again. "Still, giving them such armor so publicly...are you sure that's wise?"

She smiled. "I do things not because it's wise, but because it's fun." She looked at him. "In your case though, it's because I care."

"I have no idea how strapping me to a chair and forcing me to watch a porn video, or actually doing the act with several succubae and incubi right in front of me is a caring act."

She grinned at him, fangs showing. "It's to make you skilled enough that your first time would be awesome. Remember that time I convinced-" _blackmailed_ "-you to pleasure three women? You didn't use your dick but your skills with your tongue and mouth we're enough to make them, quote: 'think nothing of other men and fantasize only about your magical hands and the time you choose to lose your virginity on them'." She giggled.

Crimson's eye was twitching again, and there was the faintest trace of a blush on him. While she had grudgingly accepted the fact that he would never be blackmailed (no matter how bad the dirt was) into losing his virginity, she would milk the loopholes for all they're worth. One such loophole was forcing him to pleasure women, even if he wouldn't use his tool.

He had started hearing a voice in his head encouraging him to let loose after that week. A long ritual consisting of a shitload of killing intent and enough energy to blow up a planet to smithereens killed that voice.

Swearing heavily under his breath, he disappeared into a doorway.

And stepped back into his shop, stomping to his chair before sitting down and going back to reading.

Anko snickered at him. He turned the page roughly, scowling.

Kakashi coughed. "Ano...Crimson-san, what is it that you're reading?"

Crimson raised an eyebrow, before slowly closing the book. "...My journal."

"A journal?" NOW Anko was interested.

"Yes. A journal. All of those black books you see me read are journals. My family orders all members to write everything that has happened in our life in great detail. And they do mean EVERYTHING. I just tend to read back on good times in my life." He smiled as he thought of the (relatively) peaceful times of his training, both as an Avedon and as a Lacroan.

Kakashi nodded in understanding, before reading his smut.

Crimson frowned at it. "You know Kakashi, you should really stop reading that trash. If you're going to read porn, at least read the good ones."

Kakashi froze, before glaring at him evilly. "Trash?! Icha Icha Paradise is-"

Crimson interjected him. "It. Is. Trash. There is hardly any plot, just impossible situations where the protagonist somehow gets laid. And the descriptions aren't even sub-par." He shook his head. "I read better porn in my journals."

Kakashi glared at him, eye twitching. "Prove it."

Crimson raised an eyebrow, before looking at his journal.

Journals were one of the most private and personal effects of an Avedon. They didn't let anyone read it, on the threat of painful death, castration, or worse. But protocol was hardly needed when you've lost all contact to your homeworld, and no one was there to appreciate your dedication to it.

He sighed once again. If he did what he was thinking of doing, he would ruin a near-century of training, not to mention his alternate-universe self (one where he and his comrades hadn't been blasted into the Naruto Dimension) and company might just watch this universe and see him doing it.

'_Ah, who cares! The bastard can cast a Divine Curse on me for all I care. I've already joined in the Apprentice Race, so I might as well have my own fun!'_ He finally decided, grinning maliciously at Kakashi, who felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he did.

Still grinning, Crimson answered. "Oh, I will. I promise you that. Just keep a close eye on the bookstore you one-eyed bastard." The demented giggle that sprouted after the last sentence made Kakashi wonder if he had finally cracked. (Yes, yes he has)

The door opened, and Itachi Uchiha walked in. He blinked at the scene. He raised an eyebrow. "Is something the matter?"

Crimson quickly sealed the journal back in storage. "Nothing much. Kakashi has just made me make a choice that will ruin the dynasty of Icha Icha." He answered dryly, and Itachi simply gave a shrug before stepping into a newly-formed Doorway.

Kakashi stared after the cabinet's contents; wondering what was inside them that could make Crimson so confident.

Anko just shrugged, not minding at all the possibility of Crimson having gone insane, going outside to do what she usually did.

Kakashi glanced at Crimson, before dutifully leaving, knowing that he closed his shop everytime he disappeared to train Itachi.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(Scene after Crimson left Sally)**

Sally chuckled at Crimson's expense, before tapping her butterfly brooch, bringing out another Yukata, this time an azure blue, with the scene of a cherry blossom tree on top of a mountain sewn on the back. Another tap brought out a simple bamboo umbrella.

She took off her yukata, showing that she wore a set dark red, nearly see-though lacy silk thong and bra. Indifferent to the possibility of someone barging in on her, she dressed into the blue yukata, tying a purple obi securely at her waste, then stepping into a pair of white wooden sandals.

She strode out of the shop and walked through the streets, hips swaying seductively in full view due to the wide slit of the dress, her generous breasts nearly slipping out of the plunging neckline, her umbrella open and leaning on her shoulder, shielding her back from the sun.

She felt the eyes upon her form as she sashayed through the streets, dumbfounded men and women staring at her as she passed by up until she got into the park she and Crimson had fought in.

It had been repaired, and the only difference was the great iron oak that stood proudly at around the south of the park.

She touched the part that she had sent a cutting crescent through. It had healed, and she could feel the low, low pulse of mercury (mercury is the metal trees' sap) running through its veins.

She spun suddenly, turning into literal, liquid shadow and appearing in a crouched position on top of a branch in the canopy of one of the trees on the edge of the park, right in front of a Cat-masked ANBU.

Yuugao gasped in shock at the unexpected appearance of the Devil, nearly falling over the tree herself.

She blushed as the corners of Sally's mouth turned slowly upwards as she looked her body over, giving extra detail on the breast and hips, before nodding in satisfaction.

Sally seemingly rotated on the branch, her feet sliding across the wood until she was upside down, before dropping to the ground and flipping to land on her feet. She gestured for her to join her, and the female ANBU tentatively jumped down, blushing at the way Sally continued to look at her.

"The Hokage sent you to spy on us didn't he?" She asked bluntly. "Honestly, doesn't he trust us?"

She narrowed her eyes, defensive of her village. "Crimson yes, but you? Considering the fact that you kill with minor provocation and without remorse, it's hard to trust you."

Sally leaned to the side slightly, her umbrella still open and on her shoulder despite the sun being blocked by the foliage. She waved her hand disapprovingly. "Ah, yes, the moral code again. Hard to believe coming from the mouths of assassins."

"We kill for the sake of our village." She countered.

Sally grinned. "And I killed for the sake of my family and because I love the feeling of steel cutting through flesh and bone."

Yuugao frowned behind the mask at the rather brutal confession.

Sally huffed at her. "Most lives are cheap, Neko-chan. Few are truly important to the world at large. Those that I killed? They're worthless. But since you don't share my understanding, I won't lecture you."

Sally stretched, the movement causing interesting ripples of flesh to course through her body, and the kunoichi couldn't help but blush deeper at the sight. Honestly, didn't this woman have any _normal _clothes?

Sally continued talking. "You, however, are fairly significant, and will just grow to be more so the more you interact with Outsiders." Yuugao flinched when she put her gaze upon her, a hungry smile on her face.

The female devil moved, her body shifting in and out of sight, and before Yuugao knew it, she was pinned to the tree, Sally uncomfortably close to her, her mask falling to the ground.

She shivered as Sally hooked a leg around hers, curling closer to her, their bodies touching lewdly. The assassin breathed, her unnaturally warm breath ghosting over the ANBU's face.

"Hmm, nice and supple, and your legs are pretty toned." She leaned her head close, ghostly kisses moving up from her neck, to her ear, where a warm, wet, tongue slid across it sensually, and she felt the breathy purr of her lungs, vibrating against her own.

Sally's knee suddenly hiked up, grinding against her sex with agonizing slowness, and she couldn't keep the throaty moan from her mouth.

Sally capitalized this, taking her mouth and slipping a tongue in, the appendage exploring the wet cavern with abandon as her hands groped the ninja, slipping beneath her clothes and grapping a breast, squeezing it and tweaking her nipples while her other hand snaked around her waist, keeping them together.

Their nipples hardened, rubbing against each other, and she felt her heated sex moisten, and apparently, Sally did too, as the hand around the kunoichi's waist slipped downward, fingering her wet pussy, expertly pleasuring the ninja.

Her fingers delved deeper, slipping inside her panties and rubbing against her clit, before suddenly pinching it.

Yuugao's eyes widened, feeling the orgasm about to burst from her.

Sally slipped away, her mouth separating from hers with a pop, and the sheer speed of her removing her arms and legs produced enough friction for her to feel excessive heat.

The female shinobi fell to the ground, panting heavily, saliva dripping down her lips, and her pussy throbbing painfully from being robbed of its release. She stared at Sally imploringly, a hungry gleam in her eyes. "Wh-why...did you stop?"

Sally kneeled down to her, her face expressionless. She caressed her face almost lovingly. "You haven't had release in a while." It was a statement.

Yuugao nodded dumbly. She hadn't found any men she liked. There was this jounin skilled with a sword, but she hadn't actually talked to him or tried anything.

Sally removed her hand, and Yuugao groaned from the loss of contact. Sally spoke up. "You want release. I can give it to you, but not right now. And although I know you prefer men-" She gave a catlike smile "-I can do better than the best of them. Who knows, you may just find out you're bisexual."

She leaned down, kissing Yuugao's forehead. "If you want it, go to my shop at ten' o'clock tonight. I'll be waiting."

Once again, she turned into liquid shadow, and disappeared.

Yuugao breathed deeply, her lust slowly abating, and noticing for the first time how perspiration covered her skin and hair, and how wet her clothes were from her secretions.

Accepting the offer was stupid and irresponsible. Not to mention the woman wasn't even human!

She shuddered, remembering the feeling of Sally pleasuring her flesh.

She couldn't resist it...

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Root ANBU turned around, getting ready to leap away back to base to inform Danzo-sama of his acquired information when the near-silent sound of steel sliding out of a sheath was heard.

He fell to the ground, arms and legs cut off at the shoulders and thighs, leaving him completely vulnerable.

Sally slowly sheathed the hidden blade back into the umbrella.

She huffed at the ninja, kicking him painfully on the face, several bones cracking from the blow. "Fool. You underestimate my skills. You are as obvious as a clown in a congress meeting. He's all yours, my servants." She turned around, fading into the shadows.

The dismembered ANBU looked up, just in time to meet the Shadowman face to face.

He didn't have time to gasp as it revealed a single distinguishing feature of its race. It opened its mouth, a large maw that literally reached ear to ear, and the void that was its gullet swallowed the root ANBU.

No one spied on an Assassin Avedon and gets away with it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Itachi blinked at the sight of their location.

They had appeared on a deserted island, about a dozen square miles large. It had an average amount of wildlife and treelife, but the center was dominated by a large plateau made entirely of a grayish rock. This was where they had appeared, and the things on top of it were what REALLY caught his attention.

"Beautiful, aren't they? And they're alive too." Crimson commented, smiling at the rows of trees on the rocky ground.

The trees were unnatural, seemingly made of a single substance entirely. One shone like pure gold, another like silver, one on the far end was made entirely of a shining transparent crystal, another one looked like it was made entirely of gray iron.

He blinked, before turning his sharingan on and studying them closely, gasping in amazement at what he found out.

"Yes. They're alive. Amazing isn't it? They can be planted only on solid rock, and they need sunlight too. Finding a place like that that wouldn't be visible to the rest of the world was hard work, but it was worth the effort." Crimson placed a palm on the golden one. "Though they only produce seeds and leaves, but they grow a lot faster than normal trees do. And the raw material you get from them is perfect. No separating them from raw ore. You just have to let the mercury or plasma to bleed out then voila, pure, undiluted metal."

Itachi looked in amazement at the trees. There was one for every kind of metal or crystal, one and no more. But as he looked at the number of leaves each one had, he had to admit that one for each was enough. If their apparent growth speed was anything to go by. "Incredible! If we mass produce this, Konoha can be the leading power in trade and weapon-making!"

He stood stock-still when he felt a blade at his throat. He looked up to see Crimson's grim stare.

"And that is exactly what you shouldn't do. Konoha is a shinobi village, a HUMAN village. Its few noble citizens will not be enough to keep it from making the same mistakes the humans of my world did."

Itachi frowned. "What mistakes?"

Crimson looked up, seemingly lost in memories. "They mass produced the trees, and made millions of weapons that could destroy a city with a single shot." He continued despite Itachi's disbelieving stare. "It was a grim time. Within a year, they had used Lacroa's gifts to further their own designs, and terrorist groups ultimately managed to get their hands on seeds, and a war erupted."

He closed his eyes. "We...the Lacroans and the other higher races stopped time itself." _(Not exactly true. Sure, MEMBERS of the other races were with him, but Crim did pretty much all the work)_ "We killed every single one that used the trees for their own gains, and took back our gifts. We erased their memories, and left them with leaders and criminals dead, and cities ravaged beyond repair overnight. With no recollection of our existence, they suddenly had genocide on their hands with no explanation. It was chaos."

He glared at Itachi, whose face was stuck in a mask of horror. "While this world has yet to achieve the military might of any of my home world's countries, a sudden tilt of power in the favor of Konoha would promote a war that can be just as destructive as the one I told you about." He narrowed his eyes. "No. Humans have yet to show themselves deserving of another chance."

Slowly, Itachi nodded. While he had some questions, he had no doubt Crimson wasn't exaggerating the truth. Making a meteor fall on top of a sea monster told him that.

The battlemage sighed. "Just help me here. There are baskets for each tree. I want you to pick out each seed you find and put it in the basket, along with any leaves that have fallen to the ground."

Itachi looked at each 60 foot tree and nodded. He needed something to distract him from his thoughts.

They continued this for an hour, before Itachi sighed and jumped down to the ground. He was about to say his thoughts before Crimson cut him off.

The battlemage had already landed back on the ground, setting his basket next to the three. "You're agitated, frustrated, and impatient for something. Training, I expect?"

Itachi nodded, not at all surprised since Crimson had already told him he was empathic. He couldn't read minds, but he could sense emotions. "Your powers...I've seen them. They're incredible. You can rain death upon your enemies and shatter the very earth. Your skill in the art of Edge Dancing is impeccable. I cannot doubt that. But..." He scowled.

"...You have told me that I cannot learn any of them. I need this 'magic' for your 'spells'. And Edge Dancing requires a natural flexibility and agility to use. Not to mention the fact that it takes centuries for the most talented to master!" His closed fists shook furiously, his nails digging into the skin and drawing blood. "What CAN you teach me? You have mentioned bits about a turning me into a 'true' assassin, but what is that?"

He was practically shouting now. "We ninja can scale any wall, avoid detection even if we're right in front of our enemy, summon mighty beasts, and use the elements to destroy our enemies! What is it about being a 'true' assassin that would be better than that?"

Crimson closed his eyes, before opening them in an unnatural movement that seemed inhuman. Itachi's eyes widened.

Royal purple had been replaced with icy azure, and every action he made was with an unnatural grace and manner that was simply NOT human.

He held an arm pointed to the ground, standing idly, and pulled.

A blue pentagram appeared, and from it, rose a simple silver book. He grabbed it, reverently unlocking the clasp that kept it locked. He whispered, and even the intonations of his words were inhuman. "The Tome of Eternity and Infinity. A book that contains nearly all of my magical knowledge, skill, and power." He closed his eyes, as if savoring the moment.

He opened them. "Drop to the ground and cover your eyes Itachi. The release of power will blind you."

Itachi hastened to obey, and the moment Crimson opened the book and whispered "Release", all that he saw was white.

A roar of magical power erupted, the sound spanning infinity, and the world seemed to..._bow_ to him.

He couldn't explain it. He just felt as if him and the universe had found something completely beyond them, and had chosen to kneel before it.

Then, _everything_ stopped.

The light was gathered away, leaving him staring at his hands, and (despite how impossible it was) the sound itself was dragged back.

Itachi turned around, staring at Crimson.

The Lacroan hadn't changed, save for the fact that his eyes were brilliantly shining beacons of bluish-white light, trailing smoky incandescence as if they were flames. He was holding the light and sound inside a sphere of blue energy. Said sphere froze in a transparent ice, before a flick of a finger shattered it, and the pieces disappeared from existence.

Crimson glanced at the sea, and they were suddenly there inside a box, with no plausible reason to it. The Spell-Lord raised an eyebrow at the depths, before an indefinite expanse was encased in energy, and everything in it changed, until Itachi found himself inside a forest at nighttime, with several ANBU frozen in time. He looked imploringly at Crimson. "You wanted to know what a true assassin is?" He closed his eyes, and a form appeared beside him.

It was Crimson, only different.

He was younger, a lot younger. Seemingly around nine or ten and was dressed entirely in black, leaving only the eyes open, the suit clinging tightly to his body and showing every muscle as he moved, and aside from the rows and rows of serrated, curving silver knives on his chest, he was armed only with a simple katana. Regular length and all. The copy's scarlet eyes stared into his with an intensity that shook him to the core of his soul, and he turned his gaze away, shaking as a primal fear of the newcomer screamed at him to run.

Spell-Lord Crimson nodded at the assassin, and the gesture made the killer disappear. The mage turned on Itachi. "You will find yourself on a mission to kill an individual; a copy of my past self that no one else can make due to the unique mind of an Avedon. He will not know any of you. All that he will know is that he is on a mission to kill you all, while you have the advantage of knowing your target. I even let you have powerful teammates for this." His lips curled into a mirthless smile. "You shall comprehend the truth of The Assassin."

He found himself jumping from tree to tree, with his twelve companions.

"Weasel, you okay?" Bear asked, turning his head at him.

Itachi gave a nod. He wasn't an ANBU. Not yet, but apparently, in this created world, he was. The ANBU seemed satisfied with this and continued on.

He sighed, a feeling of foreboding settling in the pit of his stomach, and he glanced at his allies.

His eyes widened. "Where's rat?!"

There was a soft sound, like smooth metal across ice, and one ANBU fell, beheaded, the two pieces making an arc as they crashed to the ground, as if they had suddenly been flawlessly separated in mid jump. Sharingan eyes glanced at the last branch the fallen ANBU had jumped on, glimpsing a receding shine that may have been nothing.

He fired a goukakyou, but no one was there, but the corpse was obvious on the forest floor.

"W-what happened?" One stuttered, shocked at the sudden death.

A knife shot into his throat, and he gurgled imperceptibly.

The remaining nin looked at the direction of the throw and three immediately jumped there.

They were met with a black form nearly imperceptible in the darkness. The assassin hopped from his branch, on a trajectory with one of the Leaf nin, and his blade cut horizontally across his chest, bisecting the unfortunate ninja. The assassin pulled on something, and he went taut in the air, the two halves of the corpse falling below him, and he slammed into the tree, before rappelling downward with his invisible rope.

The ninja started throwing jutsu at him, and he avoided these by letting go of whatever was holding him up, letting him fall too fast to be hit by any of the attacks. He slammed his katana into the tree, the blunt backside used to cut through the wood instead of the impossibly sharp edge, and he scrunched to a halt several feet above the ground.

Despite the pain and numbness that would have come with such a jarring stop, he immediately dropped, jumping into the foliage and disappearing.

The ANBU on the ground chased after him, but as they prepared to jump in just as he had, he leaped back in. It was an unexpected move, and as they were posed for a chase, they were unable to react accordingly, and one was instantly beheaded while another found a knife embedded hilt-deep on his chest.

Finally responding to the threat, the others jumped back out of his reach, surrounding him in a loose circle four meters in diameter.

The black figure simply crouched in a predator's crouch, scarlet eyes red as blood staring at them unnervingly.

"That our target?" Bear asked.

"Yes." Itachi answered gravely. He couldn't predict the guy's movements with his sharingan, and yet, he could see past the clothes in the inferior x-ray vision of the sharingan. That could mean only one thing.

He had no chakra. The sharingan could see greater than normal like the byakugan, but its range of sight was lower, yet it could see chakra more clearly, and predict the enemy's movements due to that. Without chakra, the only thing the sharingan did was make him see farther than normal, and see underneath someone's clothes.

He forced his breathing to return to normal, and wondered how was it that someone could be that fast without any kind of aiding energy.

The assassin picked up the knife from the chest of the corpse on the ground, cleaning it on the dead man's chest, before leaping at the smallest gap in them all.

The ANBU fired jutsu after jutsu after him, confident he would be unable to dodge them all at such close range.

They were wrong. And Itachi marveled at his discovery.

He avoided every jutsu with unnatural reflexes. He wasn't faster than them when they were pumping chakra through their veins, but he reacted right after, and sometimes BEFORE they even made the move. He predicted every move they made with a glance, his eyes unblinking even as a bright lightning bolt passed a hair's breadth from his face, or when earth spikes stopped millimeters from piercing his body.

The two ANBU he was heading for pulled out their ninjato, meeting him in combat. He swiped at them at the highest possible speed his body could ever achieve, and the two fell down without their arms, their blades sliced apart and their chests spurting blood.

He escaped into the foliage, but this time, they were on his trail, easily keeping up with him.

He dived sideways, avoiding a too-large fireball, and cleanly sliced a tree at its base as he did so.

The remaining five ninja leap back from the falling structure, and an ANBU managed to bring his sword up to block a strike from the killer as he assaulted them once again. The ninjato was slashed clean through, and the man turned into a halved block of wood.

Itachi met him in combat, reinforcing his blade with chakra, and almost sighed in relief when the blade held. He slashed at the assassin repeatedly, keeping him on the offensive, but it didn't last long. The killer let himself fall to the ground, his hands keeping him aloft as he mule-kicked Itachi with a fluidity found only in a thousand mastered repetitions of the move.

The assassin capitalized upon the force the move gave him and jumped to his feet, which he turned into a leap on the man Itachi bowled over. The knife sunk cleanly into his forehead, and Itachi knew the man was dead.

A pillar of earth slammed into the killer, and he was thrown into the forest depths. Bear helped him up, a Monkey and Hawk-masked ANBU the only survivor besides the two of them.

"Shit. Who is this guy? We hit him with all we've got and he avoids them all. Not to mention that sword of his. Where the hell do you find a sword that can cut through anything?" Bear swore. "Hey, why weren't you able to dodge that attack? Your sharingan should have seen it."

Itachi shivered, rising steadily to his feet. "My sharingan doesn't work on him. He has no chakra."

Shocked silence surrounded the three.

Hawk chocked, shocked. "You have got to be kidding me."

He would never say anything again when a figure crashed onto him from the air, and Itachi glimpsed the sword piercing his heart. He fired a goukakyou, hoping that it caught the assassin. When the smoke cleared, there was a single charred corpse and an unblemished katana.

Something dark flickered at the edges of his vision, and he managed to call out enough of a warning for Bear to backpedal, avoiding the killer's knife-swiping form. The ANBU casted a mud flow, and the assassin jumped to a tree, climbing up with surprising speed with only his hands and feet. It wasn't fast enough to outrun them.

They followed him, scaling the tree with their feet, and each cast their own jutsu at him. He let go, using the same tactic he previously used, up to the jarring stop using two knives. He didn't expect Bear to crash on top of him though, the two slamming to the ground with vengeance.

Itachi heard bones creaking, but the assassin didn't even groan, kneeing Bear on the groin in a near instantaneous reaction. The ANBU gasped, stumbling backwards, and the killer leapt at him, a knife flashing in the moonlight. The assassin abruptly changed trajectory, slamming the knife sideways and into Itachi's fist approaching fist. The Uchiha's eyes widened and he yowled in pain.

Bear made use of the distraction, punching the black-clad figure with a chakra-reinforced blow, and Itachi dimply heard teeth shattering, followed by Bear kicking the assassin off of him and standing up. The Uchiha yanked the knife out, pushing down the scream that threatened to erupt from his throat and stared at the assassin.

He stood there, his stance in the predator's crouch, and despite the fact that he probably had a broken jaw and teeth, there was no tenseness or any indication of pain on him. Slowly, he walked backwards, blank red eyes gazing at them steadily.

Bear appeared behind him. "Oh no you don't!" He stabbed at the assassin.

The killer spun around before Bear had even appeared, and he grabbed Bear's sword arm, his other arm snapping up on the elbow. Itachi heard the sound of bone breaking as the blow bent the appendage upwards, a position an elbow was never made to be put into.

The assassin followed this with the same elbow to the neck, and Bear's head snapped at an unnatural angle. His neck had been broken.

The assassin turned on Itachi, slowly stalking towards him, eyes unblinking and unnervingly calm.

The young nin gulped, before shaking his head free of thoughts and charging the assassin, his blade reinforced by chakra and his other hand doing one-handed seals. Crimson threw a sphere on the ground, and smoke obscured them both.

Before Itachi could react, he was bowled over, and he glimpsed the killer, the recovered katana held high over him. It struck.

Itachi popped into smoke. A shadow clone.

The killer looked around him, before jumping into a shady area and proceeding to locate the two survivors, fading from sight as he did so.

Inside the hollow trunk of a large tree, Itachi breathed deeply, nodding at Monkey to tell him the killer had disappeared. "He's gone."

Monkey nodded, shaking as he did so. He spoke, fear plain in his voice. "D-did...did you see how young he was?"

Itachi cringed, before nodding.

The Nin shook harder. "He's just a kid Weasel. A damn kid. But whatever someone did to make him into...into..." He scowled behind his mask. "Into _THAT_ must be worse than anything we've ever imagined before."

The revelation shook Itachi to the core.

He was right. This copy was just a kid. A KID! How skilled must Crimson be now? How much more training or experience had he gained since that age?

The Uchiha prodigy didn't have time to contemplate this any more when a knife slammed into Monkey from outside the tree, piercing the bark and into the back of his head. Itachi immediately shot out of the tree, looking everywhere for signs of the killer.

Twin knives slammed into his ankles, and he fell with a muffled shout, and before he could even cast a jutsu to save his life, he found his arms separated from his body.

The pain mounted to something akin to raw magma flowing through his veins.

He was roughly turned around, and he met the scarlet eyes of the assassin. The katana fell, too fast for him to do anything.

A blast of blue energy collided with the assassin, and Spell-Lord Crimson appeared, energy gathered in his palms. The assassin didn't even flinch at the sight of him, giving only a raised eyebrow at the Spell-Lord. He charged, and Spell-Lord Crimson fired an encompassing half-dome of invisible kinetic energy, slamming the assassin to a tree, where bands of wood kept his arms in place. He turned to Itachi, examining his injuries.

The assassin merely gave the wood a superficial glance, before leaning forward, and Itachi cringed at the sound of bone dislocating.

The assassin pulled free, his arms and fingers hanging limp from their sockets, yet showing no outward emotion whatsoever. With a sickening crunch, he pulled them back together and charged.

Crimson, having turned towards Itachi, had only the young Nin's cringe and the unnatural sounds of dislocating and relocating bones to warn him, as the assassin was soundless in his steps. He spun around, facing the assassin, and his arm shot out, intending to make the blade slide harmlessly across the cloth.

The mage flinched when the assassin countered him with unnatural precision, forcing the blade to not change direction, and he cut Crimson's arm at the elbow.

The Spell-Lord narrowed his eyes, and a burst of power sent the assassin slamming once again into the tree trunks. He pointed his remaining palm at him and tendrils of magical energy erupted, covering the assassin completely. He chanted words in an ancient tongue, and more than three dozen spheres and cubes encompassed each other in an effort to keep the assassin in.

He breathed deeply, not out of exhaustion, but rather out of shock. "I forgot how obsessed an Avedon can get." He shook his head, and a snap of his fingers brought his arm back. He smiled grimly. "Unfortunately, I'm not done with him yet." He looked at Itachi. "He won't be getting any rest, but I wonder, how long will it take before you can finally take him down?"

Itachi found himself in a throne room of a daimyo, completely healed, and twelve jounin with him, including Kakashi with a reforged White Fang, Anko with an unfamiliar blade, and others. Kakashi was explaining that they were the team sent for the bodyguard mission to the lord.

Itachi felt cold lightning run down his spine, and he remembered the assassin, the nonexistent reaction to pain, and the deadly efficiency in which he acted.

He was going to protect this man from THAT?!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After the first four days since Cross's appearance, Naruto had settled into a schedule. He would wake up, eat breakfast, train until lunch, eat lunch, train until dinner, eat dinner, then sleep, where Lacroan would lecture him or make him read mental books to keep his education up to par, with daily necessities in between and talking to one of his few friends before, after, or during eating times.

It was a healthy life, and now, after just a week, Naruto had lost the malnourished look he had, and he constantly had a happy smile on his face.

That was going to be wiped off pretty soon.

Currently, he was the training 'room', holding Chryxalis, Trilithon, and the fingerless glove that held Damnation and Salvation.

He thought he was finally being allowed to use them.

He was going to hate them all.

"So! Am I finally gonna use them?!" He all but shouted, both mentally and physically.

Unnervingly, he received no answer from Lacroan, before the weapons he held started glowing brightly. He dropped them in shock, and the silver, black, and white glows exponentially increased, while the green veins on the blue bracelet that was Chryxalis seemed to pulse erratically.

He raised his arms to block the blinding glow as they reached their peak, accompanied with the unnerving sounds of crystal or ice rapidly forming, metal sliding lightly across something smooth, and steel grinding and grating heavily against steel.

He opened his eyes, and stared.

No one told him his weapons had human forms.

Damnation was a hulking brute of a man, a seven-foot high colossus. He turned burning red eyes at him, the black and red mangled, hellish armor producing the grating sound with each movement, and the eight-foot long jagged greatsword gleamed darkness instead of light. **"Think you've got what it takes to go up to me, kid?" **He growled in an unnatural voice that had much in common with most big, feral predators.

Salvation, a beautiful pale blonde five feet and seven inches tall with radiant blue eyes scowled at her dark counterpart. She sighed, her white robes flapping in a nonexistent wind, and her wooden sandals clacking across the ground._ "The first time you're upright, and all you think of is fighting."_

"**I live for fighting bitch."** This rewarded him a painful kick on the shin, and amazingly enough, the pitted armor bent inward from the blow. Naruto made a note to avoid pissing her off.

He looked at the next figure.

Trilithon's form was a silver-eyed, silver-haired man in light metal and crystal armor. He had a face that was all sharp angles and predatorial steely smiles, and his hair was tied in a ponytail that reached to his lower back. His lithe, five-foot-ten frame was leaning comfortably on a large blue crystal outcropping.

Naruto blinked, before turning his gaze upward. The outcropping wasn't an outcropping. It was Chryxalis.

The elemental was large, about twenty feet tall. His shape resembled a thick, rising spiral, which widened at eight feet until he had the upper body of a gorilla, his overly large, crystalline arms two feet short of reaching the ground. He had a moderate neck, but his head resembled a crested dinosaur's (like a Queen Alien from Alientm) only without a mouth, and the eyes were where the nostrils would have been. Twin, pulsing, teardrop-shaped emerald stones.

"Umm..."

Naruto felt small just looking at him, and when it turned its gaze at him, he had the sudden urge to go hide under a rock.

Trilithon grinned an edged grin at him, a blue-bladed, green-hilted shamshir appearing in his hand. "Nope. We're just here to go and teach you how to use weapons." Damnation gave a screeching laugh, while Salvation held out her hand, a beautiful broadsword made from pearly white steel in her hand.

As white and black energy that reached to the heavens burst from Salvation and Damnation respectively, Chryxalis reared back his arm, which grew to even more epic proportions.

Trilithon appeared in front of him in a silver flash, the shamshir glinting eerily, raised for a downward slash. "Survive for at least a few minutes, will ya?"

Aw crap.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto shuddered as he lay in a fetal position on the apartment's floor, having made several discoveries he would rather not have.

Salvation was pretty brutal despite being the greatest weapon of light.

Trilithon liked cutting things...A LOT.

Chryxalis was a walking titan of malleable crystals of death. The literal tidal wave of incredibly heavy crystal was proof of that.

But Damnation...

He shuddered.

The guy didn't know how to hold back. Did he even know the word?

Lacroan decided to answer him. _'Indeed. Damnation is too violent for his own good. But then again, you can't expect any less from one of Crimson Forolastardei's weapons.'_

Naruto frowned at the name. _'Forolastardei?'_

Lacroan gave a nervous chuckle. _'Someone you'd rather not know. All that I'll say is that Lacroans aren't the only ones with the possibility of becoming Hybrid Kings. Unfortunately, the only other race with the capability was as far from good as you can possibly get. Thank Destiny Damnation isn't evil. Just inherently violent.'_

Naruto gulped. _'Okay. Let's not talk about him again.'_

'_Agreed.'_

He looked out the window. "I think I'm going to visit Crimson-san after some Ramen."

'_Yes. Let's."_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After making himself presentable and a dozen orders of ramen, Naruto happily walked to Crimson's shop, before blinking at the 'closed' sign.

He pouted. "Aw man, I forgot, this is one of the days he trains Itachi-san."

"Oh! You know about that?" A sultry voice spoke behind him, and he turned around, wary.

Sally grinned at Naruto. "From what I know, only three other people besides me know about that. Who might you be?"

Naruto gulped, sensing something unnatural from her. Lacroan's dumbfounded emotions weren't helping. "N-Naruto Uzumaki."

She raised an eyebrow, before looking him over. She smiled in realization. "Ahh, Cross's apprentice huh?" She giggled, and kissed his forehead, eliciting a startled gasp from the boy. "You'll be a looker when you grow up, and you'll probably drive girls crazy." She gestured to her shop. "While those clothes are adequate, they aren't what his successor should be wearing. Now come in! I haven't forgotten the Lacroan designs!"

Naruto blinked in surprise, happily followed her, deciding that anyone that knew Cross-oniisan and Lacroan fashion COULDN'T be a bad woman.

Somewhere, in a space under the deep sea that had been turned into a facsimile of several locations around the world, Crimson felt a shiver run down his spine.

Later, Naruto would leave the shop with several scrolls full of clothes, and a smile on his face.

He couldn't believe his luck! To have Crimson AND his sister in the village with him!

Even later, when Lacroan tells him about Sally, he would be too close to the female Devil to bother.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sally lounged on a couch, turning her head at the sound of near-silent footsteps. These ninjas never did master the art of silent movement.

Yuugao shyly made her way to Sally, saying two words that made the temptress smile. "I accept."

She slowly stood up, walking around Yuugao like a predator.

Her hands ghosted over her, and she felt her stop behind her, hugging her from behind. Yuugao shivered in delight.

"One last thing before we do this." Sally breathed deeply, her breath on her ear sending tingles down her spine. "What's your name?"

The ANBU froze, remembering protocol.

The temptress caressed her, her hands flowing smoothly up and down her body. "Don't worry. I'll never take advantage of you. Never." She promised.

She calmed, leaning into her embrace. "Yuugao." She answered.

Sally purred. "I like it."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**HAHAHAHAHA! Feel the awesome might of a cliffhanger! *sees the mob* Please don't hurt me, I'm just a poor, poor, fanfiction writer!**

**On a side note, I am wondering about Hidan. His supposed master is an unkillable soldier, whose reason for being unkillable is that he can regenerate. REALLY fast. As in he can regenerate his entire body from a single cell in under two minutes. And YES, he CAN regenerate from a single cell.**

**But it's a genetic power. **

**So I'll need to fix some things. A LOT of things.**

**Or, I can make it another scam where he makes a blood transfusion or sumthin. Either that, or choose another apprentice for him altogether. Your choice.**

**As for Hidan if THAT happened. Well, Martin Farrow would SO match him...yeah, the guy even uses a scythe like Hidan. But putting him in the Naruto world would mean that their homeworld would be in a tad bit of chaos due to losing one of their fundamental forces. **

**But he would match Hidan. Yeah.**

**So...that's pretty much it.**

**Omake: Cross's training methods. **

Gaara stood at the edge of a cliff, the wind howling all around him. He turned around to face Cross. "Umm...why am I here again?"

The Damned Devil grinned. "Simple. I'm gonna make you learn how to survive falling off high places!" Gaara didn't like where the conversation was going. "And everyone knows there's no better teacher than genuine experience!"

Gaara's eyes widened in realization, and he tried to run away.

Cross wouldn't have any of that. He proceeded to push Gaara off the cliff with a kick.

He walked to the edge. "Whoa. He falls pretty fast..."

Zakara palmed her face at her boyfriend's stupidity.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gaara started to sweat as Cross finally brought out all of his weapons.

The devil grinned. "Now, the purpose of this exercise is to help you develop reflexes for dodging." He finally finished setting up the machine gun on its tripod. "Try not to get hit."

Zakara sighed from the benches. Honestly, didn't Cross notice that this was a child who had never even had to move in a battle before?

Gaara felt the early stages of hyperventilation as Cross counted down. "1.2.!"

The killing intent on its own was almost enough to kill him. The barrage of bullets from the machine gun could very well do so.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" The sand Jinchuuriki proceeded to scream, running around the field as Cross peppered the place with bullets.

The devil thought that he wasn't doing enough. He suddenly hefted two rocket launchers. "Boom baby!" Twin rockets shot out of them, and Gaara's eyes shrunk.

_**BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!**_

Gaara felt stars spinning around his head after the explosion, but retained enough sense to know that the two even newer weapons Cross was carrying weren't good news.

Cross pulled the trigger, and fire started smoking from the barrels of the weapons. Specifically, flamethrowers.

Gaara gulped. "Mommy..."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Ain't Cross insane? Yes he is...**

**Poor Gaara, stuck with the most bloodthirsty bastard in the team.**

**Read and Review people! I update faster that way! Also, I have decided that I will put a lemon in the next chapter if I get more than twenty reviews. Trust me, I know how to skip Sally having some down-time with Yuugao beautifully. And you'll be hating me with all your heart when I do skip it. So you better review. I know you can get twenty. After all, several hundred of ya read this thing every chapter.**

**On a side note, what do you think of the Assassin Avedon? And that's when one's at nine years old! Darn awesome ain't they?**

**Also, I am having ideas of putting just that in a Bleach fanfic. Having Crimson die to complete one of his missions at the height of his career. Which means he won't be part Lacroan, which means he'll be a merciless assassin that WILL cut your head off before you ever see him in a fight.**

**Should I start making that fanfic?**


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